#Legal pimp seeks office

[teentitanimals]

im working on a BIG Batfamily project, and WOW have i realized how much harder this is gonna be than i first thought it was... for now, have an excerpt- or, rather, Selina Kyle’s information card of the project :) im pretty proud of this! information and story subject to change

Selina Kyle-Wayne

birth name: Selina Calabrese

Main Alias: Catwoman

Other Aliases: Catbird (in Gothtopia), The Cat, The Cat Burglar, Irena Dubrovna

Current Age: ~46 (When first CW; 21. When had HK; 36. Retires CW; ~55. At death; ~70.)

Birthdate: March 14th (Alternatively; March 31st)

Hair Color: Black

Hair Length: Short

Eye Color: Green

Race/Ethnic/Skin Color: Half-Cuban; Possibly Italian, Scottish, and/or Latina descendant (White)

Sexuality: Bisexual

Gender: Female (She/her)

Height: ~5’11” (Tall)

Weight: ~146lbs (Sorta Heavy)

Build: Slender, Curvy

Biological Parents: Maria Kyle, Rex Calabrese

Step-Father: Brian Kyle

Alleged Father: Carmine Falcone

Biological Sister: Magdalene “Maggie” Kyle-Burton

Biological Half-Brother: Aiden Mason

Brother-in-Law: Simon Burton

Biological Cousins: Nick Calabrese, Antonia Calabrese

Alleged Siblings: Sofia Falcone, Alberto Falcone, Mario Falcone

Surrogative Sister: Holly Robinson

Ex-Lovers: Sam Bradley Jr., Eiko Hasigawa, Moreland McShane

Husband: Bruce Wayne

Parents-in-Law: Thomas Wayne, Martha Wayne

Siblings-in-Law: Thomas Wayne Jr. (On Earth-3), Rochelle Wayne (in Elseworlds: Reign of Terror)

Surrogative Father-in-Law: Alfred Pennyworth

Surrogative Sister-in-Law: Julia Pennyworth

Cousins-in-Law: Kate Kane, Beth Kane, Bette Kane

Surrogate Daughter: Arizona

Biological Children: Helena Kyle, Helena Wayne (from Earth-2)*, “Aion” Wayne (In Batman in Bethlehem)

*(HC; Helena is legally her adopted daughter on Earth-1.)

Step-Children: Damian Wayne, Athanasia al Ghul, The Heretic (clone of DW), Tallant Wayne (clone of DW), Alina Wayne (maybe), Bruce Wayne Jr. (On Earth-3839), Dick Grayson, Lance Bruner, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Cass Cain, Duke Thomas (maybe), Terry McGinnis, Matt McGinnis

Daughters-in-Law: Koriand’r, Dana Tan

Step-Grandchildren: Mar'i Grayson, Jake Grayson, John Grayson II (On Earth-2), Sasha Todd, Clark Wayne (On Earth-3839)

Step-Great-Granddaughters: Lois Wayne (On Earth-3839), Lara Wayne (On Earth-3839)

Catwoman Run: ~34 years

Succeeded By: Eiko Hasigawa, Holly Robinson, (First Name N/A) Black

Wikipedia. Batman Wiki. DC Database. DCAMU. Animated Series. Comic Vine.

(tw; self-harm, suicide, child abuse, illegal prostitution, drug addiction, sexual abuse, death)

Selina Calabrese was born to Rex Calabrese and Maria Calabrese with a sister two years older than her named Magdalene Calabrese. When Selina was very young, her mother escaped from Rex, also known as The Lion, leader of the Calabrese Crime Family, and became the husband to Brian Kyle, legally changing all their names to Maria Kyle, Maggie Kyle, and Selina Kyle. Maria had a son with him, Aiden Kyle. Their relationship was not healthy, with Maria being very suicidal and Brian being drunk and abusive. He would often yell at and harm Maria and her kids, and Maria, although she loved her kids, was distant, more often spending time with her cats. One day, Selina came home from school to find her mother dead in the tub, having cut her wrists until she bled out. A year later, Brian died from alcohol poisoning, and Selina called the police, packed her bags and ran away. Maggie and Aiden were taken to the orphanage, and Aiden, being fairly young, was almost immediately adopted by a family, where his name was changed to Aiden Mason. His contact with his half-sisters was cut off, although he would eventually seek them out as an older teen and young adult. Maggie was adopted after a few months, and was raised very religiously. She kept in contact with Selina best she could.

On the streets, Selina would steal food, clothing and other material from grocery stores. She was eventually caught and put in the orphanage. She acted out a lot, causing her to be sent to Juvenile Hall. When she turned age 13, she was sent back to the orphanage. There, she realized the place was embezzling money. To make sure she never told anyone, they put her in a bag and dropped her in a river. Selina managed to escape, and then stole documentary proof of their embezzlement to give to the police, some money for herself, and her own files in hopes of reuniting with her brother or sister. Instead, she found out that Brian was not her birth father, and that her father was an unknown mobster man. Selina continued living on the streets, stealing food and jewelry to meet her own, as the money she stole would not last forever. She would be taken in by an old thief gang leader named Mama Fortuna, who treated the kids under her care like slaves. Eventually, Selina would run away with a friend from the gang named Sylvia. They could not survive on their own and always had a shortage of money, and Sylvia took up prostitution to support them both, and grew to hate Selina for it. They parted ways.

When Selina was 17, she began illegally working as a prostitute under an abusive pimp named Stan. She stumbled upon a 13-year-old Holly Robinson who was being sexually abused by a cop. Selina beat the cop up, inspiring Holly who said that was the first time anybody had shown her she could fight back. The two became roommates. To pay for living expenses and food, Selina continued stealing, and Holly eventually became an illegal prostitute too when she was 16, despite Selina being against it. Her underage status resulted in Stan getting into a fight with a drifter, who, unbeknownst to them, was Bruce Wayne in disguise. A few weeks later, Holly would wake Selina up to show her Batman, still new and fresh, beating up corrupt police officer and former Commissioner Branden. Selina, inspired by how someone can don a costume and have everyone either be happy or terrified to see him that she can do the same too, would confront and fight Stan about his abuse, officially having her and Holly quit prostitution. She spent money to buy an expensive costume- her first Catwoman costume. She robbed a local store, and one of the security guards called her “Catwoman”, which she liked and chose to be her name. Stan, wanting revenge on Selina and Holly for quitting, kidnaps Maggie. After a few days, Selina locates him, saves her sister, and beats him to death in a rage as Catwoman. Selina informs Maggie of her new persona, who disagrees heavily, especially seeing as she killed a man, but promises to keep quiet.

The police investigate Selina and Holly, and one police officer sexually harasses Holly. Enraged, Selina went out as Catwoman with intent to kill him, but Batman intervened and made her see how her anger blinded her. Terrified she was a danger to Holly, she sent Holly to live in a convent with Maggie, who was a nun (although she would later give up her nunage to marry her husband, Simon Burton). Catwoman would begin her crime life properly, crossing paths with the likes of the Joker, the Riddler, Poison Ivy, and others, and flirting with Batman, of course. While Selina continued on to be a thief as Catwoman for the next few years, Holly felt she did not fit in the convent, and eventually found herself back on the streets. She got addicted to drugs and went back into prostitution.

While Holly was away, Selina temporarily got a new roommate, a young blonde girl nicknamed Arizona who reminded Selina a lot of Holly. She took her under her wing, and Arizona acted like her sidekick for a while, before she eventually found her own feeting and started a life on her own. She still kept close contact with Selina, though.

After five years, a gang leader named Bone killed a close friend of Selina’s named Lola MacIntire, who knew Selina was Catwoman and let her crash at her place after her apartment was destroyed. Bone wanted revenge after Catwoman had stolen from him. This devastated Selina, who viewed it as completely her fault. At Lola’s funeral, Selina encountered her old friend, Gwen Altamont, and the two began working together. Catwoman stole cars for Gwen, and encountered a metahuman thief named Spark while on the job. Catwoman convinces Gwen to let her work with Spark, and the two plan to rob Penguin of the fifth dagger they need to complete a set of valuable knives. Catwoman stakes out at the restaurant Penguin likes to eat at a day before he would be there, which Spark questions why they are doing so a day before. Catwoman notices a young hooker getting tranquilized and dragged into a van. Catwoman leaps into action, Spark soon following. They save the girl, and, after questioning local prostitutes, find out there have been multiple kidnappings and murders like this. Catwoman investigates and plans to defeat the kidnappers. After failing to stop a kidnapper in the act, Catwoman contacts Detective Carlos Alvarez, a detective who has been chasing her tail but that she knows is a genuinely good cop, for help. They track the kidnapper, Matilda Mathis aka Dollhouse, the daughter of Dollmaker, to a mansion. Catwoman fights Dollhouse, but Batman interrupts their fight, allowing both to escape. Catwoman questions her ability to be a vigilante, knowing she’s a better thief.

After those series of murders to other prostitutes, Holly quits being a prostitute and heads to her and Selina’s old apartment. She is pleasantly surprised to find Selina lived there after the destruction of her other apartment, and the two reunited. Holly began working as a spy of sorts for Catwoman, gathering information of what was happening on the streets of East End. Although she eventually stopped taking drugs after living with Selina for a few months, she felt concerned that she was still looking at the world through the eyes of a junkie to gather intel. During this time period, the Scarecrow releases a gas that makes everyone believe they are in a utopia- Gothtopia. There, Selina believed she was Catbird, partner to Batman. Where Batman could see glimpses of reality, Catbird just thought him delusional. While people who could see through the illusion questioned their sanity and committed suicide, Catbird began investigating a criminal named Steeljacket, who was also convinced their reality was an illusion. Steeljacket explained that the suit he was wearing kept him alive and he needed her thievery skills to get him the money to repair it. Catbird helped him, and the familiar adrenaline rush of a robbery made her remember her real identity of Catwoman. After Batman freed the city from Scarecrow’s toxin, Catwoman reminded him of how they shared both a partnership and a true romantic relationship in Gothtopia. Batman denied the extent of his romantic feelings, even though the toxin showed them both what they wanted to see.

A few years later, Black Mask, who held a vendetta against Catwoman, kidnapped her sister Maggie and Simon, killed Simon, and then forced Maggie to eat her husband’s eyes, driving her insane. Black Mask also kidnapped and beat Holly with the help of an old childhood friend of Catwoman, Sylvia. Catwoman kills Black Mask, Holly kills Sylvia, and they save Maggie, who is put in a psychiatric institute. Holly isolated herself and nearly fell back onto old habits. Selina decided Holly needed time to heal outside of Gotham City and needed proper training, so she sent Holly to a rural safehouse where she trained in hand-to-hand combat with Ted Grant. Selina and Slam Bradley, a detective friend of Selina’s, located Holly’s long lost brother Davey, and the two reunited.

Eventually, Black Mask was revived by a Black Lantern, and immediately sought out Maggie, threatening to kill her and anyone else Catwoman cared about. Catwoman, with the help of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, defeated Black Mask again. Maggie escaped, and no longer wanted anything to do with Selina, blaming her for her insane condition and Simon’s death, and believing Selina was possessed by a cat demon. Maggie sought out Sister Agatha to exorcise her sister, but when Maggie saw Agatha’s cat, she snapped and killed Agatha’s cat and then Agatha because she believed Agatha was in league with Selina’s cat demon. Maggie then searched through Agatha’s relics and tools, stumbling upon a supernatural substance in a container that warped Maggie’s sense of reality further. To Maggie, an angel was released and claimed it would help her destroy Selina’s cat demon. Maggie finds Selina and Harley Quinn and attacks them with heightened abilities. Harley refers to Maggie as “Sister Zero”, and then becomes possessed by the “angel”’s influence. Catwoman manages to get through to Harley, confusing her enough to escape Maggie’s control. Selina forces Maggie to escape, who starts to formulate a new plan to save her sister’s soul. The angel told her to team up with Azrael and Crusader during Gotham’s Judgement Day, which she does. Maggie believes she is her sister’s test of faith, which means either Selina will get cleansed of her cat demon, or Maggie will die. But in the end, when Maggie has a chance to end Selina’s life, she can’t bring herself to do it. Maggie ends up back in a psychiatric institute and starts to slowly heal, although sometimes Sister Zero breaks out.

Holly begins a relationship with a girl named Karon, who she moves into the apartment of. She also becomes the supervisor of a group of street kids known as the Alleytown Gang, training them to act like the spies and informants of Catwoman’s network. Unbeknownst to Holly, Selina had grown tired of seeing her role as Catwoman ruin her life over and over. Selina burned her suit, but would be forced to don it again after a woman named Roulette contacted her about a competition between thieves that threatened the lives of children. Catwoman got a new suit and raced to save the lives of the children. After competing in several rounds, she realized that there never were any real children in danger. Roulette had actually been hired by a man named Hunt Stone who wanted any evidence that connected his ancestors to a famous murder stolen and erased. Selina began sabotaging every aspect of her strictly regimented and planned out days, until Roulette was forced to declare her the winner of the Race of Thieves to make her stop. During this time where Selina went missing, Holly acted as Catwoman to keep other criminals at bay.

With Catwoman I back in action, Oracle asks Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn to keep an eye on Vicki Vale, who has evidence on the members of the Batfamily that need to be destroyed. Selina notices an artifact in Vicki’s possession that she had once stolen. It reminds her of the days when Batman used to chase her, and she reminisces on them. Her flashback is interrupted as Harley breaks into the room they were monitoring, wanting to get her hyenas back because they had stolen them from her. Vicki bolts out of the room, and they lose her trail, but Selina managed to get her phone number. She planted a fake call to lead Vicki out of her apartment, allowing Selina to break in and take pictures of her Batwall, which Batman and Oracle needed. Selina reminisces about her crime life.

When a mysterious malefactor came to Gotham with a yearlong plan to ruin Batman’s life, Catwoman began investigating into the turf war between the Penguin and newly returned mobster Carmine Falcone. She was captured by Falcone for causing him grief years ago and he nearly killed her, but Professor Pyg attacked Falcone, having a vendetta against him. Catwoman plans to kill Falcone, who she suspects might be her biological father, but before she can, Batman intervenes. She leaves Falcone and his mob to Batman, but sometime later while trying and failing to stop a deal to sell a baby snow leopard for its fur, a young girl locates Selina. She tells Selina that her father wanted her to attend a meeting in Blackgate Penitentiary. Her real father was Rex Calabrese, the crime boss from whom Falcone had taken power. Selina declined the request at first, but a street kid named Jade came to find her next, informing her the girl before her was killed by gang violence. Selina asked Rex for his guidance in becoming a mob boss herself to keep the mobsters in check from killing any other kids. The leadership of the Calabrese Family and the ownership of the Egyptian Nightclub were passed onto her as the legal heir. Catwoman, wanting to make sure Batman knew she was still on the side of good despite becoming the head of a crime family, told Batman everything she knew about the group of Arkham escapees still on the loose. After she got invited to a secret weapons sale that were actually weapons stolen from Batman’s own supply, Catwoman began to research high bounties in Gotham, and was tipped onto Stephanie Brown. Catwoman kidnapped her without realizing she was the current Batgirl. She was rescued by Batman and the situation was resolved. Soon Batman got captured by Lincoln March, and rioting broke out across the city. Selina forced her people to help prevent the riots while also secretly making strategic thefts to further her causes. During this time, Selina gave up her Catwoman mantle to Eiko Hasigawa, a heir to the rival Hasigawa crime family, and a love interest of Selina’s.

Eiko’s time as Catwoman was short-lived, though, as Eiko and Selina merged the Hasigawa and Calabrese families, leaving Eiko as their leader while Selina went back to her normal life… Sort of. She realized she was pregnant from a one-night stand with Sam Bradley Jr., and Holly Robinson took on the mantle of Catwoman at Selina’s request. Selina made up a fake identity, Irena Dubrovna, to peacefully give birth to her daughter, legally known as Helena Dubrovna. Sam Jr. had died by the time Selina realized she was pregnant, but his father, Slam Bradley, wanted to provide for his new granddaughter. Selina could not resist the thrill of Catwoman, and donned the suit alongside Holly a few times. Unfortunately, Film Freak and Angle Man had deduced where Selina lived after catching the two Catwomen on film, and kidnapped Helena. Selina easily rescued her daughter, and then had Zatanna Zatarra mindwipe the two villains of Selina’s identities. With Batman’s help, she faked “Irena” and Helena’s deaths, putting Helena up for adoption. She asked Zatanna to wipe her mind of knowledge about Helena so she wouldn’t put her in danger again, but Zatanna refused.

After returning to her solo role as Catwoman for nearly a year, Selina allowed herself to be arrested and sent to death row at Arkham Asylum for the murders of over two hundred terrorists. It was her friend, Holly, who had really committed the crime, but she trusted Batman would prove her innocence, therefore saving her and Holly’s lives. Nearly a year later, Helena Wayne, biological daughter of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, from Earth Never-Two passes into Earth Never-One and gets trapped. Helena meets this world’s Selina Kyle. The two become close, with Helena still mourning the death of her mother in her universe and Selina missing her daughter. Selina was worried that being too close to her alternate universe daughter might lead her to the same fate as her Helena Kyle, but this Helena was an experienced adult who had lived through an Apokoliptian war. She was a capable vigilante who could hold her own perhaps even better than Selina herself, and Selina felt her concerns fade away. After another year passes, Selina asks if she can adopt Helena Wayne, despite Helena being 21-years-old. Helena, surprised, agrees. Almost a year after that, Bruce proposes to Selina and she accepts, becoming his wife.

Selina Kyle is, in general, highly flirtatious, seductive, and willing to use her looks and her charms to get what she wants- in fact she’s even proud of it. She’s also, much like her namesake, graceful, sly and light-footed, known as one of the greatest thieves out there. Despite her past of being an abused victim, she stands with her head high since she first donned the Catwoman suit (it can be quite enconfidating, that anonymity). She was never one to sit back and let herself or others get abused, and she sympathizes heavily with abused children, young women and sex workers especially. While her career as Catwoman started out to support herself and her friends, it eventually became an addictive adrenaline rush she couldn’t give up. Even though she’s ‘reformed’, she still has sticky fingers and loves the thrill of getting away with small robberies, especially when her husband is the Batman. She enjoys getting under his skin. She isn’t too big on black and white morality, instead choosing to do whatever is necessary for the situation. She’s not ‘above’ killing, but she’s no homicidal murderer, and it’s never her first option, although attacking her loved ones is a sure way to push her closer to the edge. Although admittedly in her earlier days, the empowerment of being Catwoman got to her head, and she let rage cloud her judgement, leading to her being more willing to brutally harm and kill. She’s very willing to take risks, enjoying the danger even, and she’s incredibly stubborn and persistent. She never had much of a villainous ego, nor does she have a superhero complex. She walks the line between the both with confidence, never worrying about being in the gray. Sometimes it ticks her off when Bruce and others think she should commit completely to one or the other, when she’s perfectly fine where she is.

Reblogs appreciated! Stay tuned for the finished project, which is this... but for every Batfam member ever

[pittarchives]

His Old Tribulations, Our Current Struggle: Remembering Garner in the Current Call to Reform Cannabis Laws

This post was written by Warner Sabio Sr., Graduate Student, Jazz Studies, University of Pittsburgh.

Recently, on April 7th, Virginia’s legislature passed a bill legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana, making it the 16th state to do so. Under Virginia’s law, adults can possess an ounce or less of marijuana beginning July 1. Several weeks before, New York passed the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, legalizing the recreational use of marijuana in the state. New York’s legislation also expunges the records of people convicted on marijuana-related charges that are no longer criminalized. These two drug-policy reforms concerning marijuana are a few of the many looking to respond to the disproportionate and often tragic impact previous legislation has had on communities of color.

For Erroll Garner, the drug policies regarding marijuana and the enforcement of those laws affected him personally and professionally. On January 26, 1946, Garner was arrested in Los Angeles and charged with violating section 11500 of the California Health and Safety Code—a felony at the time. The State accused Garner of possessing “flowering tops and leaves of Indian Hemp (Cannabis Sativa)” and set bail at $500. According to dollartimes.com, adjusted for inflation, $500 in 1946 is equal to $7,156 in 2021. An excessive amount, it seems, for the non-violent crime he was accused of committing. Nevertheless, on April 10, 1946, Garner pled guilty to the charge and was sentenced to 90 days in the county jail. This incident would mark Garner as a felon and a “dope addict,” in the problematic wording of the language that circulated in press accounts. The distinction would continue to cast its shadow and haunt the pianist for at least another decade, if not the rest of his life.  

(Above) Page 1, (Below) Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, and Page 11 from folder “Erroll Garner Personal,” Erroll Garner Archive, 1942-2010, AIS.2015.09, Box 3, Folder 18,  Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System. 

Six years later, after a performance at Mack’s Tavern in Atlantic City on September 12, 1952, the pianist was again arrested and brought up on charges surrounding a marijuana-related drug bust. According to The Baltimore Afro-American, Garner was held “for failure to register as a convicted addict under the state’s narcotics registration law and not for being an actual user of narcotics.”[1] The conviction referred to by New Jersey law-enforcement authorities was based on Garner’s 1946 Los Angeles arrest, which he reportedly informed authorities of at the time. Interestingly, Garner, convicted of possessing marijuana in the initial Los Angeles case, was now branded a “dope addict” in press coverage revolving around the Atlantic City incident.

(Above) Image of the article from The Baltimore Afro-American, Sept. 13, 1952.

The headline on the front page of September 13, 1952, Pittsburgh Courier read: “ARREST ERROLL GARNER FOR DOPE.” The subhead for the article noted that Garner was “Part of Big-Time Roundup.” The lede stated:

ATLANTIC CITY – Erroll Garner, Pittsburgh’s significant gift to jazz and dexterous piano-playing, was nabbed here in a post-Labor Day roundup of alleged dope addicts and suspects.”[2]

(Above) The Pittsburgh Courier, Sept. 13, 1952.

The Courier also reported that forty-one other suspects were also arrested. One of those arrested included Garner’s roommate and valet, Frank (Tons) Randolph, who was accused of “being a dope peddler.” The Afro-American reported Randolph “was placed under $25,000 bail after two witnesses testified in Municipal Court on Monday that they bought marihuana in $10 and $20 lots from him.” According to dollartimes.com, adjusted for inflation, $25,000 in 1952 is equal to $245,730 in 2021. From the reports, it does not appear that authorities found any weed on Garner or Randolph. Nevertheless, it seems the testimony was enough to warrant the arrests.

It is also interesting to note that the Courier report hinted at a possible ulterior motive for the arrest.  Perhaps stemming from the practice of racial profiling of Black men driving nice cars, the paper reported, “police are alleged to have stated that Garner has been driving around Atlantic City in a 1952 Cadillac and a woman, described by some as his wife has been driving a Chrysler.”

In a follow-up story on September 20, The Afro-American interviewed Garner about the arrest. The headline read: “GARNER SHRUGS OFF DOPE COUNT ARREST: ‘Just One Of Those Things,’ Pianist Says of Shore Incident.”[3] Garner discusses the Los Angeles case in the piece, affirming his conviction (saying it took place in 1943) and stating he was “sentenced to 45 days to an honor farm.” Garner elaborated:

“It was all a ‘frame.’ I was turned in by a fellow whose job I took in a night club in which I was playing. The guy was salty and squealed. But I am not complaining because it did happen. At the time, I was a youngster and went around with a bunch of wild guys.”

(Above) Headline from The Baltimore Afro-American, Sept. 20, 1952.

As for the Atlantic City incident, Garner was quoted as saying he “was through with that kind of stuff now” and had “too much to lose.” However, he was critical of the publicity, stating, “the only thing is that I was the least involved and got most of the publicity. This is one time that I wished I was digging ditches.”

Almost a month after the Atlantic City arrest, on October 11, 1952, The Afro-American reported that Garner was fined $50 for failure to register as a dope addict.[4] The case was thereafter dismissed, and Garner “filed the necessary registration forms in compliance with the local ordinance. According to the paper, the incident had left Garner feeling “disturbed” and “embarrassed.” Garner was forced to cancel several weeks of bookings “in order to permit him to rest” because he was “suffering from nervous exhaustion.” As for Randolph and the others arrested that night, my limited search came up empty as to how they fared.

On Jan.17, 1953, the Courier reported that a case involving Garner’s arrest in St. Louis on New Year’s Eve was tossed. Garner was charged with possession of narcotics.[5] The paper said, “Garner’s case was thrown out of court because the officers did not have a warrant when the arrest was made.” Garner’s attorney, however, clarified that the basis of the arrest was “a crank telephoned St. Louis police that the pianist had carried narcotics from New York to St. Louis in his automobile. It was revealed that Garner had arrived in this city by plane.”

For Pittsburgh-born Garner, professional success could not shield him from the insatiable appetite to punish that has driven much of the nation’s drug policies for decades. Major players in the formation of these early policies are uniquely linked to Garner geographically. Harry J. Anslinger, who served as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics, was an Altoona, PA native. Pittsburgh’s-own Andrew Mellon, the uncle of Anslinger’s wife, appointed him to the post. Mellon, at the time of Anslinger’s appointment, was the Treasury Secretary.

According to The Economist:

“The drafters of the Harrison Act of 1914, the first federal ban on non-medical narcotics, played on fears of ‘drug-crazed, sex-mad negroes.’ And the 1930s campaign against marijuana was coloured by the fact that Harry Anslinger, the first drug tsar, was appointed by Andrew Mellon, his wife’s uncle. Mellon, the Treasury Secretary, was banker to DuPont, and sales of hemp threatened that firm’s efforts to build a market for synthetic fibers. Spreading scare stories about cannabis was a way to give hemp a bad name. Moral outrage is always more effective if backed by a few vested interests.”[6]

According to law professor Michael Vitello, “while the Harrison Act did not include a prohibition against marijuana, its framework would become the model for Congress’s first efforts to criminalize marijuana.”[7]

(Above) Harry J. Anslinger served as the first commissioner of Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Image from the Associated Press. 

Driven by stereotypes, some framers of early U.S. drug policies linked the usage of both marijuana and cocaine to marginalized communities and racialized “fringe groups like pimps, prostitutes, and day laborers” and “uppity Southern blacks and race-mixing drug parties.”[8]  Concerning Anslinger’s beliefs, Vitello states:

“Finding racist quotations attributed to Anslinger is easy and a reminder of how ingrained racist language was in this country. Here are a few choice quotations: “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men”; “Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman twice”; and “There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.”[9]

These antiquated and racist beliefs would vibrantly pulsate through the heart of drug laws for generations. Unfortunately, Garner’s experience was not isolated or rare. For Garner, the arrests and court cases must have been taxing. His experience speaks for many people caught up in the web of draconian drug laws pervading the justice system. The growing frustration has led to calls for change.

As previously mentioned, recent efforts have yielded changes to drug policy concerning marijuana across the United States. To date, sixteen states, two territories, and the District of Columbia have legalized small amounts of marijuana for adult recreational use. Twenty-seven states have decriminalized weed, meaning, “small, personal-consumption amounts are a civil or local infraction, not a state crime (or are a lowest misdemeanor with no possibility of jail time).”[10] However, more needs to be done to undo the gross injustice that lopsided enforcement has produced. It is a flawed system of policies and laws that impacted Garner then and thousands today. We must resolve the discordant tones struck by the framers of foundational drug war policies, the effects of which still resonate and impact civil society today.

Works Cited

Erroll Garner Archive, 1942-2010, AIS.2015.09, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System.

“Arrest Erroll Garner For Dope: Pianist Part of Big-Time Roundup.” Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Pa.), September 13, 1952: 1.

Bender, Steven W. “Joint Reform? The Interplay of State, Federal, and Hemispheric Regulation of Recreational Marijuana and Failed War on Drugs.” Albany Law Environmental Outlook 6, no. 2 (2013): 359–.

“Errol Garner Case Thrown Out of Court.” Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Pa.), January 17, 1953: 1.

“Errol Garner Pays $50 Fine: Failed To Register As Dope Addict.” Baltimore Afro-American (Baltimore, Md), October 11, 1952: 9

“Garner Shrugs Off Dope Count Arrest: ‘Just One Of Those Things,’ Pianist Says Of Shore Incident.” Baltimore Afro-American (Baltimore, Md), September 20, 1952: 3

Gootenberg, Paul. Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2008.

“‘How did we get here?’ A Survey of Illegal Drugs.” Economist, July 28, 2001, p. 4. The Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2015 (accessed April 13, 2021). https://link-gale-com.pitt.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/GP4100323851/ECON?u=upitt_main&sid=ECON&xid=779492d4.

“Pianist Under Bail For Not Registering As Addict; Shore’s Raids Called Biggest.” Baltimore Afro-American (Baltimore, Md), September 13, 1952: 1

National Conference of State Legislatures website, https://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/marijuana-overview.aspx

Vitiello, Michael.  “Marijuana Legalization, Racial Disparity, and the Hope for Reform.” Lewis & Clark Law Review 23, no. 3 (2019): 789-822.

[1] “Pianist Under Bail For Not Registering As Addict; Shore’s Raids Called Biggest,” Baltimore Afro-American (Baltimore, Md), September 13, 1952.

[2] “Arrest Erroll Garner For Dope: Pianist Part of Big-Time Roundup,” Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Pa.), September 13, 1952.

[3] “Garner Shrugs Off Dope Count Arrest: ‘Just One Of Those Things,’ Pianist Says Of Shore Incident,” Baltimore Afro-American (Baltimore, Md), September 20, 1952.

[4] “Errol Garner Pays $50 Fine: Failed To Register As Dope Addict.” Baltimore Afro-American (Baltimore, Md), October 11, 1952.

[5] “Errol Garner Case Thrown Out of Court.” Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Pa.), January 17, 1953: 1.

[6] “‘How did we get here?’ A Survey of Illegal Drugs,” Economist, July 28, 2001.

[7] Michael Vitiello,  “Marijuana Legalization, Racial Disparity, and the Hope for Reform,” Lewis & Clark Law Review 23, no. 3 (2019), 794.

[8] Paul Gootenberg, Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2008, 193.

[9] Vitiello,  “Marijuana Legalization,” 799.

[10] National Conference of State Legislatures website, https://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/marijuana-overview.aspx

[nancy-birch]

More Georgian English Terms

From the glossary of The Covent Garden Ladies by Hallie Rubenhold 

@madeinhistory, @spineofxsteel, @isaacpincher, @hcrlotwells, @wxldchxld, @amethystmuses

Abbess: the female keeper of a high-class brothel. Adventurer: a con man, usually well dressed and seemingly genteel. Bawd: a woman who procures sex workers. Bawdy House: a brothel. Bagnio: a bath house, usually a location where sexual favours could be received.  Bilk: to cheat someone out of their pay. Black Legs: a gambler who bets on horse races. Refers to the tall black boots they wore. Blood: a riotous and disorderly fellow. Bow Street: the headquarters of the magistrate, John Fielding and the ‘Bow Street Runners.’ Bridewell: the Clerkenwell-based prison for sex workers. Buck: ‘a man of spirit’ or a debauchee. Bulk Monger: a homeless sex worker who lives and plies her trade from the benches below shop fronts. Bully: a man who acts as a protector to a sex worker, 18th century equivalent of a bouncer. Bunter: a destitute sex worker. Cantharides: aphrodisiacs. Chariot: a phaeton or two-wheeled carriage. Chair/Sedan Chair: a chair enclosed within a small cabin and carried on two poles by two bearers. Usually used for covering short distances. Clap: a venereal disease, usually gonorrhoea. Compter/Round House: a local lock-up or gaol. Cull/Cully: a sex worker’s customer. Cundum: a condom. Were generally made of animal intestine and fixed in place with a ribbon. Used as a prophylactic rather than a contraceptive device. Disorderly House: the legal term used to describe a brothel. The Fleet: London’s main debtor’s prison. Gin: a cheap, frequently adulterated alcoholic drink favoured by the London poor. High-keeping: the extravagant maintenance of a sex worker in expensive lodgings. ‘In keeping’: the state of being financially supported by one man as his mistress. Jellies/Jelly Houses: a gelatine dessert favoured by both high and low society.  The King’s Bench Prison: the Southwark-based prison generally used for holding debtors and those guilty of libel. The Lock Hospital: a hospital for the cure of venereal disorders. Founded in 1746. The Magdalen Hospital: a reformatory for repentant sex workers. The Marshalsea: a Southwark-based prison mainly used to house debtors. Mercury: the primary ingredient in treatments for venereal disorders. Newgate: London’s chief prison, where its most dangerous felons were held. Night Constable: a parish constable on duty in the evenings. Night Watch: the lowest- ranking law-enforcers. Notorious for their dishonesty and their susceptibility to bribes. Nunnery: a high-class brothel, usually based on or around King’s Place. Panderer: a slightly higher-ranking pimp who worked within doors. Pimp: a man who seeks ‘to bring in customers and to procure wenches’. Plead her belly: when a woman claims she is pregnant in order to save herself from execution. Pox: syphilis. Rake: ‘a lewd debauched man.’ Other terms include ranger or roué.  Register office: an employment office where jobs were advertised. ‘Sal/Salivation/ ‘down in a sal’: someone in the midst of a mercury treatment for veneral disease. Among other symptoms, the ingestion of mercury brought on profuse salivation. Serail: a high-class, French-style brothel. Sharper: a cheat, ‘one who lives by his wits’. Spunging House: a bailiff’s lock-up ‘to which persons arrested are taken till they find bail. Tyburn: the location where public hangings were conducted during the 18th century.

[scottbcrowley2]

Legal pimp seeks office in Nevada as some push brothel bans - Mon, 11 Jun 2018 PST

A state marketed as a place where people can indulge in all manner of sins is confronting its status as the only place in America where you can legally pay ... Legal pimp seeks office in Nevada as some push brothel bans - Mon, 11 Jun 2018 PST

[brianberger56]

A President Who's For Justice, and Opposes Corruption = Right On, Thank You!

https://pic.twitter.com/ynWzkOy8rAA President Who's For Justice, and Opposes Corruption = Right On, Thank You Mr. President! Like him or hate him, it is FACT that President Trump is the first, and currently only, modern President who has made an effort to give the boot instead of rewarding and PROMOTING corrupt Federal government officials. He’s taken a first step to reverse YEARS of institutional corruption and OFFICIAL Federal Government policies intended too and effectively promoting, encouraging and advancing corruption and unrestrained abuses of power by unethical, unaccountable, criminally-corrupt local governments and local and state officials (elected and appointed).  This has included and is perhaps most evident in the epidemic corruption, lack of accountability, transparency, ethics, integrity, or discipline in Law Enforcement Organizations from coast-to-coast, in small towns and big cities, where Presidents up-to and including President Obama advanced policies of Federal government collusion and protection for crooked District Attorneys and prosecutors and their sadistic, corrupt pals in law enforcement (and political and government offices) to deprive far too many decent, undeserving American Citizens (often “targeted individuals” considered a threat to those in power or their agendas or targets selected based on bigotry, race and even wholly arbitrary reasons) of life, liberty, justice, and the most basic and fundamental rights and liberties, deprivations removing from many any semblance of the Constitutional and civil rights, liberties and judicial principles (i.e. innocent until proven guilty, by a jury of peers, punishment based on credible evidence not the fabrication of “cases” irregardless of facts and evidence by habitually malicious prosecutors supported by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Attorneys, and the FBI, presumed to be a “watchdog” providing “oversight” by most Americans but in fact solely concerned with protecting and furthering corrupt prosecutors and sadistic, lawless, corrupt law enforcement agents - as partners of those institutionally-corrupt Federal agencies - rather than providing a check against egregious, indefensible murders, torture, beatings of law-abiding citizens, even war heroes in their own homes, men, women and children, of all races but undeniably especially those of darker complexions, and both major political parties are culpable and the corrupt thugs in the judicial system and law enforcement at every level include men and women, Dems and Republicans, officials of all races, two notable examples being Eric Holder, the most culpable U.S. Attorney General for the worst, routine abuses of law-abiding citizens by violent, brutal LEOs and official protection of government corruption as a formal Federal policy, and Denver’s Mayor Hancock who has prevented any local efforts to address these issues - and increased the national problem in his City for his selfish sexual pursuits and bribes - to appoint his lobbyist cronies to the so-called “Citizen Oversight Board,” a joke that mocks any citizen who believes in justice, Rule of Law, civil rights and liberties, and even life itself as being more valuable to Society than sadistic police brutality harming and murdering individuals of all races and ages who were not and never did break ANY law.              President Trump has done far more to promote justice than all recent predecessors combined, while surrounded by the evil, corrupt criminals in office that are so entrenched and great in number that almost no community or government agency exists as an exception to this epidemic of corruption and injustice, or even minimal accountability for the corrupt officials destroying lives and communities and undermining justice and freedom - sacred American values that meant nothing to any of the narcissistic, evil thugs in North Carolina where I was a County Commissioner surrounded by the most immoral, evil people I have ever met, including those in jail and prison - where I was sent for the crime of being a threat to the “culture of corruption” and the officials and voters who live and profit and sin without consequence and with mutual support for each other. By comparison, the people incarcerated in those jails and prisons are saints, far better people with far greater Christian values and virtues (though many have done horrible things and some truly horrific acts that are undeserving of sympathy or mercy, the overwhelming majority were harmless to others and incarcerated for reasons not related to having hurt other people even if guilty of the charges against them...God would find much kinder, humane, moral & spiritual, if tortured & hurting, souls in jail than in any government office or agency or political/judicial body in North Carolina). https://pic.twitter.com/ynWzkOy8rA       - An Appeal For Freedom Justice & An End to Torture For Fighting Corruption and Seeking Justice (or "North Carolina And the Crooked Feds - Ten Years Worse Than Death Surrounded By Corrupt Prosecutors, Media Trolls, the US Dept. of Injustice & FBI Swamp Rats, And Their Corrupt, Sadistic Politician & Police Thugs AGAINST Justice, Integrity, Morality and Traditional American Virtues!)

A desperate appeal to our principled, pro-Justice President from a former elected official who opposed corruption and unaccountable, secret government practices in North Carolina, where Corruption is King, and the FBI and Governor Corrupt Government's Criminal, Narcissism-Infected Pimps for Evil, Unethical Prosecutors, Crooked Politicians and their like-minded, sin-sharing Media Troll service providers - Devoid of Ethics or Human Decency too, with their Sadistic deviant lawless badge-bigot goonies no better than your common Crip or truck stop sucker. Crooked Prosecutors and Politicians and suffered consequences far more torturous and less humane than death as a result. For more than ten years, since defeating a long-term Republican County Commissioner and Democratic career Sheriff in Wilmington, NC, where a culture of corruption was pervasive and unrestrained, and common knowledge among state and Federal officials who unbeknownst to most citizens were well-aware of the extensive corruption and routinely permitted criminal activities by elected officials, equally corrupt County and City managers, and sadistic, violent, law enforcement officials with a long, organized role violating civil rights, liberties and the safety and property of any real or perceived threat to the self-serving secret activities of the corrupt District Attorney and an incestuous County Courthouse that had long been the center for corruption and crimes including murders and vile acts of violence and total deprivation of the most basic human and Constitutional and civil rights of innocent citizens at the hands of Sheriffs Deputies and WPD officers serving extremely corrupt, malicious prosecutor, Ben David, his corrupt assistant prosecutors, immoral justices and a cartel of politicians who called the Courthouse home during the day to profit in front of perverted and corrupt judicial partners while laying the foundations for their political corruption behind closed doors in City Hall at night.

I am an admittedly uncompromising Constitutional strict constructionist and abhor injustice, abuses of power, sadistic violence and goon squad law enforcement SOPs including horrific acts of violence against unarmed, presumably innocent citizens, expensive cover-ups of violence occasionally concealed from the public as a condition of legal settlements for those few victims fortunate to be somewhat compensated for damages incurred at the hands or bullets, or K-9 officers employed as implements of torture by law-defiling, abusive, often drug-using Deputies with violent habits similar to the worst street gang skull crackers in the Cape Fear Region (Southeastern NC), but with absolute freedom from any consequences and absolute protection from legal accountability, financial or professional discipline or punishment, or any scrutiny or judicial response for violent criminal attacks – Directly resulting from local prosecutors and political criminal actors AND documented, blatant, unapologetic collusion of the North Carolina S.B.I., recent Attorney General and current Governor Roy Cooper, and numerous U.S. Department of Justice and F.B.I. officials – whose actions as individuals defy any semblance or interest in justice, oversight or prosecution of criminal violations of the law, criminal corruption by Federally-protected local officials and law enforcement personnel, even when extensive, irrefutable evidence is, or has been, provided to FBI Special Agents, Justice Department officials, the U.S. Attorneys Office, and other Federal agencies – under the Administration of President Obama, who in practice maintained policies intended to prevent and encourage, if not enhance and actively promote, local and State government corruption, prohibit investigations of apparent corrupt practices, including policies preventing investigation of documented prosecutorial misconduct, evidence and witness tampering, fabricated misinformation and defamatory, deceptive public statements contradicting documented evidence of criminal wrongdoing, coercion and bribery among other tools to elicit specific behaviors from members of law enforcement, media and public parties to criminal wrongdoing, explicit directions to deprive law-abiding citizens of the most basic and cherished civil rights and undermine the Rule of Law and equal protection under the Law. Further, in conjunction with twin brother Jon David and a District Judge, Sandra Ray Criner, conspiring and initiating determinations in flagrant violation of targeted individuals legal rights while exchanging protection for the aforementioned Judge’s spouse- therein providing protection and exclusionary permit in fact to engage in documented sexual abuses and assaults against pre-adolescent female victims – as well as providing favorable assistance to Judge Sandra Ray Criner’s tenure and ambitions as a member of the Judiciary.

Detailed, highly-consistent, evidence of malicious prosecutorial conduct by District Attorney Ben David, County Board Chairman and Attorney Ted Davis, on record stating a personal leading role in directing illegal targeting, harassment, political intimidation through threats and acts of violence including the use of lethal weapons to carry out lethal retribution for my outspoken opposition to corruption during the Republican Primary for County Board of Commissioners, harassment, stalking, including routine unlawful traffic stops, often occurring between 8-12 times per month, frequently conducted while legally parked (texting constituents), compelled to take a breathalyzer despite no record or regular consumption of alcohol, often accompanied by many of the often dozen or more responding officers pointing their loaded firearms and shotguns at my face and torso, physical and verbal abuse, public humiliation and perception-creation, and credibility eroding, use of six or more vehicles with lights flashing suggesting criminal activity among any onlookers or passers-by, escalating to far more violence and brutal torture, resulting in permanent neurological damage, PTSD and loss of some executive functioning, once well-above average and despite years of rehabilitation and therapy, documented by approximately a dozen or more medical professionals and experts, including independent government experts…

Sadly, this is a very concise and censured account of the torture and life-ruining sadistic violence, property and financial crimes and attacks, various abuses of government power and law enforcement authority to inflict harm, carefully documented and ALWAYS ignored by Senior Justice Department and North Carolina Attorney General (Roy Cooper), SBI and Obama Administration FBI agents, despite visible harm and illegal violations of laws pertaining to my sworn duties as a duly elected and honorable elected representative, acting according to the pledges made while campaigning, pledges I took seriously and led to increasingly illegal and wholly undemocratic, corrupt, nearly-lethal escalations of public and bodily destruction and harm – and possible only with the unyielding approval and periodic, active participation by the very officials and agencies of the Federal government and officials perceived by many Americans as the watchdogs and oversight agencies chiefly or at least most intrinsically and capably charged with pursuing justice and defending citizens from wanton criminal attacks as well as defending the integrity and legitimacy of American democratic government systems and process and representative sanctity.

In point of fact, I did not, do not and never will have the authority, charisma, financial security, connections and future prospects of prominent politicians, Governors, football team owners or multi-millionaire investment professionals, or the connections and resources and talents to influence national decisions, the esteemed Commander-in-Chief and Presidential advisors and trusted staff, nor the means and elites’ protective distance from the wholesale personal destruction inflict able with atomic catastrophic damage that modern social media and unapologetic, unethical and largely fictitious media outlets and troll armies are capable of inflicting. I do not have any recourse from defamation, no matter how dishonest, vindictive and deliberately distorting and ruinous the insults, absolute falsehoods and fabricated the narrative…and frankly, people naturally resent anyone who is constantly flashed on television or the front page of the newspaper…the “Vanilla Ice” effect – extreme overexposure in and of itself – generates negative feelings toward the subject…whether the audience believes the target is attention-seeking or whether they realize the target is a victim of others concerted efforts to harm and incite public hatred and negative feelings toward the targeted individual and everything associated with them, be it a product or principles or ideas….

I was thirty years old, an accomplished professional, and genuine, transparent, highly-principled public official, but the legal attacks and financial, medical, privacy, stalking, life-threatening, even threats to kill my beloved golden retriever, “Boomer,” especially given the history of County Deputies shooting unarmed individuals and killing their sweet dogs as well, constant baseless charges requiring my presence in court from Ben David, Assist. D.A. Lillian Salcines-Bright, Alex Nicely and a large corrupt staff army under Ben David ensured I would be in court constantly – that way, I was prevented to great effect from serving the public and attending to my $16,000 year public office. It was a job I took deathly seriously, and worked 80-100 hours a week, minimally, to be an effective advocate for the general welfare of New Hanover County taxpayers. I eventually lost my house to foreclosure and was robbed four times in one year – sacrifices from legal fees and lost opportunities to pursue my career along with public service, exacerbated by targeted zoning and various financial penalties government has the power to inflict and they came after me with a vengeance….in ways that would boggle most minds.

Eventually, I was forced to leave town after my four-year term concluded, facing continuing harassment and death threats from law enforcement officers. My greatest crime during this four-year period, though I never claim to be a saint, was having a seizure while on the side of a residential street sending a text. Despite medical evaluation, and a handful of seizures, and medical clearance, a B.A.C. of 0.0 and no impairing substances in my system, the D.A. plotted and executed a phony charge and MR. David advertised that I committed a “DUI” when this was totally dispelled by ALL facts and on-scene medical personnel…who determined I was fine to drive on my way from the scene after regaining consciousness. However, I was thrown in jail, again, and again, for no unlawful action justifying imprisonment. The use of solitary confinement was used effectively as a form of torture causing permanent damage in few days, this is universally true in regards to solitary confinement – it’s inhumane and torture that most people can’t endure for even 24 hours, though most people think they could manage it, Every scientific study proves we can talk tough and act tough, but most people have a better chance of beating Tom Brady in a Super Bowl than they do of not being broken by the solitary confinement method of torture.

Lest anyone presume that I harbor anti-police or anti-authority beliefs it should be noted and is not inconsequential that I was a conservative Republican supported by most of the grassroots, principled activists within the Party, as well as garnering significant support from an atypical coalition of Reagan Republicans, the most progressive, environmentalist organizations at the local University of North Carolina campus, seniors and many Democrats, esp. relatively new residents appalled by the ruling "establishment" Republicans and country club attorneys, or the "Jeb Bush/Mitt Romney" GOP establishment with its dominant motivation being continued domination of local government by Wilmington's leading landowning families, who's patriarchs' seized power through a bloody coup d'etat in 1898, the only Coup d'etat in U.S. history, when successful northerners and free blacks were forced to leave town never to return or cut down by machine guns - actions proudly defended by these families and the attorneys and realtors and cronies who cross Party lines and prioritize power and control (and traditional, accepted corruption as "normal business" practices by and within City and county government).

Supported by GOP activists, young working families, the most progressive, environmentalist and activist organizations at the local University, seniors, retirees and many Democrats esp. recent northern transplants appalled by the pervasive and short-sighted corruption by local officials - I pledged to pursue transparency, accountability and ending the closed door meetings where citizen awareness and participation were not welcome AND I took that promise seriously. I advocated support for law enforcement and fighting crime and gang activity, and since I have a record being an elected official, I voted 100% during my four year term to give the Sheriff everything he asked for, and admittedly, in those pre-Ferguson, Mo., pre-Eric Garner, pre-Black Lives Matter days, I was naive...having experienced nothing but a positive relationship with law enforcement my entire life prior to being elected to public office, and I worked closely with various law enforcement agencies as a first responder, and character reference for FBI Special Agents and aspiring law clerks for US Attorneys Offices. Even when crooked officers in the New Hanover County Sheriff's Dept. and Wilmington Police Department were routinely violating my rights, committing acts of violence and harm against me and my golden retriever pal, and engaging in property crimes to damage and intimidate and harm me, I STILL honored my commitment and supported with not a single exception, local law enforcement and the Sheriff - hand picked successor to the Career Sheriff who I defeated in the Commissioner Election, an election I won despite being outspent by approx. $100,000 to $10,000 by long-entrenched Machiavellian incumbents. I continue to support law enforcement causes, but I can no longer ignore the pervasive, epidemic institutional corruption, violence and brutality, bigotry and unaccountability, lack of integrity and ethical indifference that permeates law enforcement from coast-to-coast, in every state, small towns and big cities, and the systemic involvement of corrupt prosecutors, politicians and unethical media outlets along with the U.S. Dept of Justice, FBI and US Attorneys (most notably and personally responsible being Eric Holder in recent years).

There are no groups to whom my life matters. Ben David and the criminal swamp rats at the institutionally-corrupt Department of Justice, FBI, within the incredibly corrupt State of North Carolina, especially the N.C. Governor’s Office with three inhumane, indifferent justice adversaries, occupying that Office most recently, including Roy Cooper who’s record as State A.G. is appalling and current Attorney General Josh Stein is equally indifferent when it comes to Justice. I believe Justice is a traditional Republican value, President Trump has done far more for fixing the corrupt, broken criminal justice system than any other Commander-in-Chief in memory….he has the potential to be the greatest Justice advocate in the White House since Abe Lincoln…Hopefully, he will prioritize that admirable challenge as part of his legacy and continue the first steps he’s taken in Term One of Two! The President who opposes corruption and fights for equal, principled Justice in the face of widespread institutional corruption and epidemic sadism and bigotry and prosecutors who are as criminal, narcissistic and unethical as pervasively as law enforcement is epidemically consumed by institutional corruption that is so deeply-rooted in us-against-them, bullying, sadism values and disregard for liberty and the Rule of Law - and unfortunately, institutional corruption, lack of accountability, transparency, and devoid of integrity almost always requires outside remedy…rarely does an out-of-control rocket right itself without external forces.

I was a highly functional, professional, ethical and public service oriented nice guy who was elected despite a speech impediment, minimal charisma, no talent for lying convincingly, and deep, unwavering principles esp. when it involves Liberty, Justice, the Constitution and Equal rights with Limited Government and Taxpayer, not Politician, Rule!

Now, thanks to events barely described here, and Google, I have been homeless, though not abusing alcohol or drugs, but abandoned by family, friends, supporters, and no organization willing to hire me after doing a Google search – despite my abilities and work ethic and character….

I am praying for mercy from President Trump and though a pardon doesn’t apply to my situation, his clemency and effort to expose the truth I experienced and maybe even allow me to join his staff in some capacity to work on criminal justice reform, anti-corruption action to free the President from HAVING to be the government watchdog against corruption because government has become so corrupt – the agencies that should be fighting corruption, DOJ and the FBI, are among the worst purveyors of corrupt narcissistic self-interested corruption tools – and its hurting America and undermining civil political discourse in our society.

President Trump, please help me. Being homeless and tortured and damaged to the point where death would be better than my life since being elected to stand-up to corruption is torture and nobody deserves it. Everyone deserves Justice and a justice system ruled by laws, not men. “Moderation in the pursuit of Justice is No Virtue,” the great Republican Barry Goldwater said. Let’s bring Justice back into the fold as a traditional value like it once was and you’re moving in that direction. Please help me and if you’re willing, allow me to serve this Nation on Earth by working for you toward that virtuous end!

https://youtu.be/EwKioTi6-Oo

https://www.buzzfeed.com/brianb417f21406/tazers-harassment-beatings-torture-isolation-1dml7

https://www.facebook.com/brianberger

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianberger56

https://twitter.com/brianberger56

https://pic.twitter.com/ynWzkOy8rA

[investmart007]

PAHRUMP, Nev | Legal pimp seeks office in Nevada as some push brothel bans

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/YuvSkb

PAHRUMP, Nev | Legal pimp seeks office in Nevada as some push brothel bans

PAHRUMP, Nev. (AP) — A state marketed as a place where people can indulge in all manner of sins is confronting its status as the only place in America where you can legally pay someone for sex.

A coalition of religious groups and anti-sex trafficking activists has launched referendums to ban brothels in two of the seven Nevada counties where they’re legally operating. The effort dovetails with a campaign by the state’s most famous pimp for a seat in the state Legislature.

Dennis Hof, who has half a dozen brothels operating in the two counties and starred in the HBO adult reality series “Cathouse,” is challenging incumbent Assembly member James Oscarson of Pahrump in a Republican primary Tuesday.

Hof said Nevada “is the last of the live-and-let-live states” and was built on “gaming, liquor, girls and mining.”

“It’s awful that people would come in and try to change that culture, that they want to inflict their moral values on the rest of us,” he said.

Karen Cohen, who lives in a county with four legal brothels, called it “an embarrassment that we are one of the very few spots in the very United States that tolerates legal prostitution.”

The Pahrump resident is involved in a push to get two anti-brothel measures on the November ballot.

Brothels, which are illegal in the counties that contain Las Vegas and Reno, harken back to Nevada’s days as a mining territory about 150 years ago. Brothels were illegal but tolerated in some areas until 1971, when the Mustang Ranch near Reno became the first legal brothel.

It led to a movement that allowed counties with populations of 700,000 people or fewer to decide whether to legalize prostitution in licensed facilities. Outside of bordellos, prostitution remains illegal. Some brothels offer free limo rides from Las Vegas, offering to pick up guests from their Strip hotels.

Today, about 20 brothels operate in the state, mostly in rural areas. The state doesn’t publicize how many are open, and most owners keep a much lower profile than Hof, who wrote a book titled “The Art of the Pimp” and has dubbed himself the “Trump of Pahrump.”

Hof was also in the limelight in 2015, when former NBA player Lamar Odom was found unconscious at Hof’s Love Ranch brothel in Crystal, Nevada, after a four-day, $75,000 stay.

The Love Ranch, about an hour’s drive northwest of Las Vegas through the desert, looks like a large single-story home with some statues and pink bicycles out front, along with a sign for “Dennis Hof’s Love Ranch Cathouse,” advertising a gift shop, full bar and “no sex required.”

Guests ring the front bell and are escorted into wingback chairs in the parlor, while the women in the house slip into their heels and assemble in a lineup to be chosen.

The brothel, like others, offers role-play-themed rooms and spa-like services.

Sonja Bandolik, the brothel’s 58-year-old madam who also works as a prostitute, said women there sign a contract for at least two weeks — enough time to get a background check and prostitution license from the local sheriff.

Women also are required to get regular tests for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV, and condoms are mandatory.

Bandolik, who has a short pixie haircut and a deep tan, said she decided to work in a brothel at age 51 after watching a Western movie depicting an old saloon. She remarked to her husband that it would be “cool if we still had those.”

She says her husband “loved the idea.” He lives with her at the brothel and works as its general manager.

Bandolik, who estimated she made close to $18,000 in May, calls her profession “soul expanding.”

Another woman living at the brothel, a 23-year-old with pale skin and long blond hair who goes by the name Azalea Love, said she previously worked as a prostitute in Las Vegas but feels safer since she moved to the brothel three months ago.

“You have people around you if something goes wrong,” she said.

Though Hof said he’s never had problems at the brothels until he started running for office, allegations of misconduct have been leveled at the pimp and his clients before.

In 2003, a prostitute at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch in Lyon County accused Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil of grabbing her by the neck and throwing her against a wall.

Neil later pleaded no contest to a battery charge, but Hof has said he thinks the woman made up the story.

In April, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that two former prostitutes accused Hof of sexual assault several years ago, but prosecutors declined to prosecute him because the statute of limitations had expired.

Hof denies the allegations. He told The Associated Press that the women’s claims are “totally absurd” and that they became embittered against him because they weren’t as successful in the sex industry.

Hof said the referendums are driven by moral crusaders tied to his political opponent.

Jason Guinasso is pushing to get the anti-brothel measures on the November ballot and is a partner at the law firm of Oscarson’s political ally, Nevada Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison. Guinasso and Oscarson have denied any connection between their campaigns.

Oscarson said he was surprised to hear about the anti-brothel efforts and is not involved. He thinks it’s time for the brothels to go but said he has not signed an anti-brothel petition.

“This is a man who simply wants to blame everybody else for his mistakes,” Oscarson said of Hof.

Guinasso and others involved with the anti-brothel campaign say that many women aren’t there by choice — they may have grown up in poverty, been a victim of sexual abuse or were sent to work there by an illegal pimp.

Bandolik, the madam, said it’s possible some of the prostitutes have illegal pimps but that they aren’t allowed in the brothel.

In November, voters in Lyon County, southeast of Reno, will weigh in after county commissioners put the issue on the ballot. And northwest of Las Vegas in Nye County, organizers are working to gather enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot this fall.

Guinasso said that even if the measures don’t pass, he’ll consider it a victory that Nevada residents will be rethinking whether the industry belongs in the Silver State, particularly in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

Hof predicts the measures will fail but said if brothels were banned, illegal prostitution will flourish.

“The business is not going away,” Hof said. “It’s the oldest business in the world.”

By Associated Press

[chiseler]

La Danse Mossad: Robert Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein

Media tycoon and former Labour MP Robert Maxwell (father of Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s partner in crime) was given a state funeral in Jerusalem after *accidentally* falling off his yacht – the unluckily named “Lady Ghislaine”. Later it was revealed Maxwell Sr was a Mossad asset who used his vast network of connections and publishing platforms to run editorial interference over his purchased assets to influence enemies and friends alike, ensuring their fealty to the foreign government that had enlisted him for its espionage work.

His tabloid empire was the piss-colored propaganda organ of the interests he served, overseeing its rapid growth and tentacled reach across the globe. More ominously, he was behind the spy agency’s successful attempt to install a trapdoor in software intended for government use, allowing the Israelis a direct pipeline into a vast network of computers installed with undetectable malware.

At the time of his death, the disgraced magnate was under investigation for raiding his companies’ pension funds to cover the losses incurred from his multiple and reckless takeovers, and finance a luxury lifestyle he enjoyed sharing with high profile pals like Henry Kissinger and Barbara Walters. Curiously, many of these fossilized specimens from Robert Maxwell’s roster of friends from the Reagan era would circle around Epstein, most notably Donald Trump whose Mar-a-Lago resort would later become a recruiting center for employer Epstein’s underage “massage therapists”.

Fast forward a couple of decades since the days a casino mogul was gobbling down canapés with the old guard denizens of the ‘swamp’. Notice a similar, if not identical MO in both Maxwell and Epstein’s role in procuring technology for the Israelis, who in turn sold it with undisclosed add-ons, providing an open window into its users’ databases.

Like his predecessor, Epstein had a financial stake in a startup (headed by former Israeli Defense Minister and later Prime Minister Ehud Barak) connected to Israel’s defense industry that provides infrastructure for emergency services as a call handling platform. Considering the company’s connection to military intelligence, it wouldn’t be a stretch to speculate on some of this software’s other ‘special’ features. A variation of the early technology that Maxwell was able to procure for his Israeli bosses was later sold to the Saudis, who leveraged its sophisticated tracking features to assassinate Jamal Khashoggi.

Epstein, like Maxwell, was laying the groundwork for Israeli espionage activities through his interests in companies with a political agenda concealed in products intended for international export. If true, the playboy philanthropist feted and flattered his high profile friends to ensnare them as complicit partners in what amounts to the legal definition of treason. Epstein’s covert activities have undiminished real world consequences for anyone on Israel’s international radar, especially those challenging the status quo policies in place that prioritize “The Jewish State’s” political and financial objectives over actual justice and global stability.

If you have ever asked yourself why Israel’s war crimes and settlement expansion go unchallenged by US lawmakers, consider the career destroying consequences contained within those dossiers compiled by the braintrust behind Epstein’s ’suicide’. “We’ll trade you one US Embassy in Jerusalem for 10 minutes of hidden camera footage of you . . . let’s say ‘enjoying’ a rolled up Forbes magazine”.

Were the surveillance apparatuses installed throughout Epstein’s properties merely a voyeur’s tools, or did he use them to leverage the moral failings of his former friends for purposes that might have risked exposure of more than the nether regions of wealthy pedo-punters? Considering his connections to Israeli defense industries and his own Achilles penis that required, by his own admission, “three orgasms a day”, the answer points to an unslakable addiction that dovetailed conveniently with his state-sponsored sex crimes.

Did Epstein make the same mistake as Maxwell (who had asked for nearly half a billion dollars in “loans” from his Israeli backers to relieve him of his mounting debts) believing the dirt he had in his possession would prove radioactive if released? By this time, the corpulent tycoon was nicknamed the ‘Bouncing Czech’ a reference in most part to his worsening money woes. The implication of this request, if turned down, was the exposure of Israel’s state secrets. Epstein could have also attempted to collateralize the cache of damning evidence still in his possession to secure his his freedom with the same fatal consequences.

Both Maxwell and Epstein somehow evaded the electronics that linked them to the outside world at the time of their deaths, even though the latter had reportedly made an attempt on his own life while in custody. Both men, facing ruination and serious prison time gave their executioners an alibi: They had nothing to left to live for. The establishment media is already trotting out ancient, ding-a-ling conspiracy theories from obscure right wing sources (attributed to Russia, of course) to highlight the absurdity and futility of questioning the official story of Epstein’s death. Verdict: Nothing to see here.

By now, it’s a given that the parasitic and preferred daughter of the deceased tycoon, made the fateful introduction between her new boyfriend and the Israeli operatives seeking an entry level plutocrat to carry out their blackmail operations after the untimely death of his predecessor. An impoverished socialite has to survive in pricey Manhattan somehow, and that somehow was re-establishing the shady connections to the espionage underworld that had recruited Maxwell Sr.

Ghislaine’s later role as Epstein’s Chief Procurement Officer (or pimp for short) gives more credence to the rumors that she is more than just a debased, barnacle-like appendage to a billionaire, desperate to please her platonic partner by “organizing his social life”, but a fully cognizant co-conspirator in an operation aimed at strengthening Israel’s hand in all matters pertaining to its national security interests, or more accurately, its overseas criminal enterprises.

The recent raid on Epstein’s Manhattan apartment was not the result of a so-called Justice Department righting the egregious wrong it committed by letting Epstein off with a slap on the wrist after his initial conviction that allowed him to serve his sentence largely outside the minimum-security facility with an open door policy for its billionaire guest. More likely, the reversal of Epstein’s “sweetheart” deal was a joint operation between the oligarch cabal informally known as the Mega-Group, and the state security apparatuses that do their bidding.

It’s seems likely that this sudden pivot towards justice from a Justice Department initially spooked into inaction by the spook in his custody, was motivated by the need to remove the most damning bits among Epstein’s vast trove of physical evidence against the pervy punters who visited his island getaway for unintended photo ops with underage girls.

Perhaps his own abuse of these minors was a perk he felt entitled to, and one that would be overlooked in the service of “national security”. It’s hard for most people to differentiate between the government he actually worked for and the ruling establishment on his home turf.

It’s possible that Epstein felt his serial transgressions were merely par for the plutocracy and justified in the service of a higher calling.

The ‘Israel First’ philanthropist shared an unyielding ideological justification for his own criminality as Robert Maxwell, whom the British Home Office had considered recruiting for its own intelligence gathering in the mid 1960’s. Having determined that the well-connected, multilingual, rising star politician was strictly “Zionist”, the spy agency withdrew his candidacy.

Epstein’s real crimes had little to do with raping children, despite the overturned plea deal that came about when a federal judge ruled that prosecutors had violated the victims rights by by concealing the agreement from them. The one time teflon-coated “member of intelligence” who was “above the pay grade” of a powerful District Attorney (now a now scandal-tainted former Labor Secretary) was ultimately (and lethally) penalized for not destroying the contents of his secret-laden safes, leaving his handlers still vulnerable to their explosive contents.

Had the doomed financier divested himself of the toxic assets still in his possession, he might still be roaming the earth today, scouring it for new specimens to populate his underage petting zoo. As a result of the Justice Department’s decision to reverse the non-prosecution deal meant to bury the most incendiary facts of the case, lower-rung punters like former governor Bill Richardson and Senator George Mitchell are being publicly named for their part in the sordid scandal. Someone has to take the fall. (Rule number one of PR crisis management: Crucify the insignificant and let them hang out to dry until the public tires of watching the slow motion spectacle of their undoing.) Meanwhile, documented and/or photographic evidence against more powerful players like Bill Clinton and Donald Trump will have already been destroyed in the pursuit of selective justice.

The fallout of Epstein’s spectacular downfall predictably miss the mark as scandals involving the rich and powerful tend to do. Much of the controversy will dissolve into a Cheeto dust maelstrom of disinformation, disseminated on Reddit and 4Chan by incel info-warriors before shooting up a shopping mall or playground.

Subsequent reporting of the case will overlook decades of the elite-driven state craft that elevated corrupt and ruthless entities like Epstein and Trump, both ring-kissing acolytes in their youth of influential mob fixer/political power broker Roy Cohn – himself a serial sexual predator who similarly caught the fancy of fellow deviants Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover. Follow the money trail from Tel Aviv and you’ll discover an ancestral link between the corpse of Epstein and his ghostly godfathers waiting with his rewards in hell.

Along with the other disgraced and expendable patsies left in the wake of this ongoing scandal is Alan Dershowitz, Epstein’s octogenarian chief legal counsel and ‘wing man’ aboard the Lolita Express. The now unemployable cable news pundit will live out the remainder of his pointless life under a cloud of suspicion. Despite all the damning testimony against him, the statutory rape allegations never quite stick, but follow him around like a sneaky fart, forcing a distance between himself and the rest of humanity that will last until he is engulfed by the sulfurous fumes of his own making.

The former Harvard law professor’s lifelong service to Israel will go unrewarded – not as a result of victim testimony placing him at multiple crime scenes, but in consideration of his own inept self-defense strategy: ”I’m a scurvy rat aboard a sinking ship eating its own tail to stay alive. Pity me”! Dershowitz at this point will be lucky if he can achieve the same pay grade and social status of Lindsay Lohan. Ditto for Prince Andrew who can at least be relied on to expire slowly of gout in his time-out corner at Windsor Castle.

The moral of this story could be “Lie down with dogs and never wake up again with a prison-issued sheet around your neck”. A variation of the old “Lie down with dogs and and wake up as fish food”.

by Jennifer Matsui

[goldenwestborn]

Brothels in Nevada

**CONTENT WARNING FOR THIS POST**

There’s a lawsuit that is seeking to outlaw brothels in Nevada, and so for those that are unaware here’s some information on Nevada’s brothels:

As of February 28, 2018 there are now 21 legal brothels in Nevada.

Here’s some of the things experienced in brothels:

“A grotesque exercise in the dehumanization of women is carried out routinely at Sheri’s Ranch, a legal brothel about an hour’s ride outside of Vegas. There the women have to respond like Pavlov’s dog to an electronic bell that might ring at any hour of the day or night. At the sound of the bell, the prostitutes have five minutes to get to an assembly area where they line up, virtually naked, and submit to a humiliating inspection by any prospective customer who has happened to drop by.”

"I saw a grated iron door in one brothel," says Farley. "The women's food was shoved through the door's steel bars between the kitchen and the brothel area. One pimp starved a woman he considered too fat. She made a friend outside the brothel who would throw food over the fence for her."

“Sheriffs in some counties of Nevada also enforce practices that are illegal. In one city, for example, prostitutes are not allowed to leave the brothel after 5pm, are not permitted in bars, and, if entering a restaurant, must use a back door and be accompanied by a man.”

Illegal activities in brothels/by brothel owners:

I was unable to find any recent reports in regards to underage girls, however in 1998, two pimps place at least four underage girls from Oregon in Nevada’s brothels. Detective Greg Harvey of the Lane Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team in Eugene, Oregon had the following to say: "Never buy the line that nobody under 18 works in (Nevada brothels)," he said. "It's happening."

A former brothel owner sentenced to 15 years in federal prison on child pornography charges.

An audit conducted by the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office on four brothels found several license and immigration violations.

Statistics:

81% of women working in Nevada’s brothels want to leave the industry.

An increase in demand for commercial sex leads to more sex trafficking, and Nevada drives this point home: At least 5,016 individuals are sold for sex in an average month in Nevada. Nevada’s number of prostituted persons per capita is 63% larger than the next largest state of New York, and more than twice as many as in California.

Drawing on information from postings on the website Backpage.com, researchers determined that only 28 percent of sex providers in Nevada "appear to be adults working independently with no risk of trafficking."

Additional Information:

One researcher found that at Mustang Ranch all the women were addicted to drugs, with “quite a few” embarking on their substance abuse once at the ranch.

Julie Bindel wrote the following on her first visit to Nevada’s brothels in 2011: “When I arrived, Hof exclaimed, “Any publicity is good to sell pussy!” During my visit, I saw Hof treat the women as merchandise, and witnessed first-hand his employees’ misery. Hof referred to the women as “hoes,” and, as several attested to me, he would often grab their breasts and crotches when they walked past. The women who worked in his brothels were required to line up whenever a john appeared, and were told they were not to smile or move; instead, they should stand very still, staring straight ahead. I also witnessed Hof demand sex from any of the women who took his fancy.”

Age can play a part in how much women make, there is a preference for younger looking women.

Resources:

Politics and Misogyny

It's like you sign a contract to be raped

Panel: Brothels aid sex trafficking

Pimps force underage girls to work in Nevada brothels, Oregon police say

What We Know About Sex Trafficking, Prostitution, and Sexual Exploitation in the U.S.

A Ballot on the Brothels of Nevada

LCSO Internal Audit Report Brothels

Prostitution and Trafficking in 9 Countries: Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Let Hof’s death ring in a prostitution-free era

New study: Nevada has biggest commercial sex market of any U.S. state

Nevada’s Commercial Sex Trade

Lamar Odom, Nevada Brothels, and Human Trafficking

Podcast: Are Legal Brothels in Nevada Safe and Here to Stay?

Books:

Prostitution & Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections - Melissa Farley

Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women - Alexa Albert

[districofcolumbiaprelawland-blog]

The Ethics Of A Judge

By Trevor Haefner, The George Washington University, Class of 2020

September 15, 2020

The integrity of the judicial system relies heavily on the character of those granted the power to sentence others. Without faith in lawyers and judges, it is hard to predict the effects it would have on the U.S judiciary. Therefore, when a judge is accused of violating the code of ethics placed by federal and state governments, it is a serious matter. Judge Melanie Andress-Tobiasson, a Las Vegas justice of the peace, was recently charged with an ethics complaint from the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline. On August 31, the Nevada Commission submitted the complaint, and a major issue cited against Andress-Tobiasson was her abuse of the prestige of her office [1]. This violation is explained in-depth under the first canon of the Nevada Code of Judicial Conduct.

The first canon is one among four and it outlines how a judge must, "uphold and promote the independence, integrity, and impartially of the judiciary…" [2]. Furthermore, this code contains a rule that judges should avoid abusing the prestige of judicial office. This means that judges should not utilize their status as a keeper of justice to advance their own economic and/or personal goals. Also, it is inappropriate for judges to use their position of power to seek preferential treatment for any reason. However, judges can use their name to give references or recommendations as long as it would not be perceived as a means of pressuring others [3].

As for what Andress-Tobiasson did to abuse her power, the issue centers around her daughter. She was trying to save her teenage daughter from a sex trafficking ring believed to be hidden under the guise of a clothing store. She assumed that the store was secretly a club where underage girls would dance on stripper poles and work as prostitutes [4]. Information such as this would reasonably make any mother investigate the store. Andress-Tobiasson, according to the ethics charges, allowed her family affairs to undercut her independence and impartiality [5]. Her investigation began in July 2015, and she asked several officers of the law to research the store. To some, this may seem like a mother simply seeking justice for her daughter, but the commission has some scathing claims about her relationship with police. The ethics complaint states those officers would ask for search warrants from Andress-Tobiasson that were unrelated to the clothing store [6]. Such as claim as this would show a severe lack of impartiality on the judge's behalf. Later in December 2015, Andress-Tobiasson's daughter informed her that an alleged pimp attempted to convince her to become a prostitute. As a result, the judge demanded the police to investigate the suspect [7]. Another layer of complexity to these ethics charges is the alleged pimp in 2016 was charged with domestic battery. Andress-Tobiasson was on the bench and accepted his guilty plea. She did not want to be removed from the case because it might make the culprit aware she was the mother of a frequent customer at the store [8]. While it is understandable for a mother to want to protect her child, her position of influence and way of handling the situation can be seen as an abuse of power.

Andress-Tobiasson is not afraid to share her side of the story as she did in an interview with 8 News Now. She explained, "I would go, I would watch, I would get license plate numbers, I would get makes and models of cars, I would follow people, I would get information about where they would go, where they lived," [9]. This confession may appear bold of her to state, especially before the commission finalizes a verdict, but she used the opportunity to defend herself. In that same interview, she told the news station, "I never used inappropriate means to get information. I did it all myself," [10]. The validity of her claim is naturally debatable until this matter is resolved, but her lawyer, Marc Cook, is certain she is innocent. Cook hopes to clear, "a multitude of inaccuracies," presented by the commission [11]. Unfortunately, he has declined to comment on what parts of the allegations are incorrect. Andress-Tobiasson and her lawyer have twenty days to respond to the charge which means Cook's answer to those "inaccuracies" will be revealed soon [12].  This is not the first time this judge has faced scrutiny from the commission. Last year the commission charged her after hearing complaints about her use of profanity around court clerks. These charges were later dropped; however, it displays how her actions can be perceived as unethical [13]. 

Whether or not Judge Melanie Andress-Tobiasson's actions violated legal ethics codes will be the commission's burden to prove. Marc Cook and the judge both seem adamant that her decision-making did not abuse her status. Perhaps her recent encounter with the commission has swayed the board's bias against her, but that is only speculation. As previously stated, it is vital for the justice system to uphold high moral standards, and the morality of Andress-Tobiasson is at the very least questionable.

________________________________________________________________

[1] Weiss, Debra Cassens. “Judge is accused of abusing judicial prestige while investigating hip-       hop clothing store and double murder.” ABAJournal, September 4, 2020.   https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/judge-is-accused-of-abusing-her-power-to-       investigate-hip-hop-clothing-store-and-double-murder.

[2] Hardesty, J. W., Parraguirre, R. D., Douglas, M. L., Cherry, M. A., Saitta, N. M., Gibbons,M., & Pickering, K. (n.d.). Revised Nevada Code Of Judicial Conduct.https://www.leg.state.nv.us/courtrules/scr_cjc.html.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Weiss, Debra Cassens. “Judge is accused of abusing judicial prestige while investigating hip-          hop clothing store and double murder.” ABAJournal, September 4, 2020.       https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/judge-is-accused-of-abusing-her-power-to-         investigate-hip-hop-clothing-store-and-double-murder.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ferrara,David. “Las Vegas judge accused of improper involvement in murder probe.” Las Vegas Review Journal, September 2, 2020. https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/courts/las-vegas-judge-accused-of-improper-involvement-in-murder-probe-2110387/.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[laboratorium2d]

Ideologues and Grifters, Douchebags and Snowflakes: A Theory of the Trump Administration

I've read a lot of confused takes trying trying to make sense of the Trump administration through a traditional left-right lens. I'm sure you have, too. They use words like "pivot" and "establishment" and they struggle to explain when and why Trump does things other Republicans complain about. I find this particular style of Kremlinology unhelpful. Whether "conservatives" or "moderates" are winning is less than half the story.

The biggest division in the Trump White House is between ideologues and grifters. Ideologues care about policy; grifters don't. Ideologues sometimes fight viciously among themselves over their policy commitments, but they're united by having commitments at all. Grifters are driven only by the enrichment of the Trump family and the appeasement of Trump's ego.

Within the ideologue camp, the starkest contrast is between ethno-nationalists (economically populist, isolationist, and sometimes overtly racist) and globalists (economically libertarian, cosmopolitan, and not necessarily racist). There are also disagreements about military policy, but the overall distance between hawks and doves is much narrower.1 There are no analogous divisions within the grifter camp; any side cons they have going are small and personal. The grifters, as I said, are unconcerned with policy for its own sake, but are happy to go along with whatever position is more expedient at the moment.

The other deep division is a matter of style rather than substance: there are douchebags and there are snowflakes, with drones somewhere in between. The key here is shame: the douchebags are psychologically incapable of feeling it, the snowflakes struggle with it constantly, and the drones keep it at bay by crossing their arms and scowling at the floor. Douchebags call up reporters for lengthy profanity-laden tirades; snowflakes call up reporters to say how embarrassed they are; drones call up reporters but ask not to be quoted by name. Douchebags don't quit because they can't take a hint; snowflakes constantly wring their hands about quitting but never go through with it; drones quit when asked but never on their own. Douchebags make Trump angry by stealing his headlines; snowflakes by public signs of disloyalty; drones by telling him 'no'.

Within the Republican party over the last two decades, there has been a rough correlation between ethno-nationalist ideologues and douchebags on the one hand ("conservatives") and globalist ideologues and drones on the other ("moderates"). But this alignment of substance and style has always only been rough and partial, and one of the things that Trump did during the campaign was to expose, in literally spectacular fashion, how hard it is to pin down a grifter on the conventional political spectrum.

Trump himself is a douchebag grifter, and at the extreme on both axes. But consider some of the other players, past and present, in his administration:

Steve Bannon: douchebag ideologue, subtype ethno-nationalist

Sebastian Gorka: douchebag ideologue, subtype ethno-nationalist

Reince Priebus: snowflake ideologue, subtype globalist

Jared Kushner: snowflake grifter

Gary Cohn: snowflake ideologue, subtype globalist

Anthony Scaramucci: douchebag grifter

John Kelly: drone ideologue, subtype hawk

Jeff Sessions: drone ideologue, subtype ethno-nationalist

Mike Pence: drone ideologue, subtype globalist

Michael Flynn: drone grifter

With this multi-dimensional taxonomy in mind, some of administration's personnel gyrations make more sense. Consider the linked fates of Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus. In January and February they were at each other's throats, fighting over policy. But by July, as ideologues working for a grifter increasingly hostile to ideologues, they found common cause in fighting for policy at all. Priebus, of course, went out on his ear -- but that was primarily for being a snowflake in a position where Trump wanted a douchebag. He got one par excellence in the person of Anthony Scaramucci. Then Scarmucci flew too close to the douchebag sun, so he was one of the first go when Kelly started firing douchebags of all stripes.

In conventional political terms, it looks as though the White House lurched away from Priebus's pro-business Republican establishment towards Bannon's insurgent right-wing populism, and then quickly back. Those shifts are to some extent real -- a collateral consequence of Kelly's housecleaning is that the globalist ideologues have (or perhaps had) an open shot on goal in getting Trump to push their tax agenda. But it would be a mistake to see the back-and-forth primarily in those terms, not when so often the motivations are personal rather than political, driven entirely by personalities and rhetoric.

At least when it comes to setting policy, the palace politics of the Trump court are less important than they seem. Trump may swagger and rage like a medieval monarch, but unlike them he lives in a modern media environment. His ministers can keep the courtiers out of the throne room, but they can't keep the king from seeking the counsel of Vulpes et amici or from listening to the tweeting of a million birds in his ear. The flow of information -- both the raw "facts" and the all-important framing -- to the current president depends less on White House staff filters than at any time in living memory. James Murdoch's personnel decisions matter in a way that John Kelly's don't: more turns on whether Hannity keeps his job than on whether Bannon does.

The place in which it matters more who survives each successive purge is not in who has Trump's ear at the moment but in who is there to take orders from him. The Office of Legal Counsel is of the view that the President could scrawl a legally binding executive order on a napkin, but Trump's tweets are deeply underspecified. Someone has to translate them into directives specific enough to implement on the ground and defend before a judge. When that someone is a Steve Bannon, you get the first Muslim ban: malevolence tempered by incompetence. When that someone is a James Mattis, you get the transgender ban: malevolence subjected to a slow rollout. When that someone is a Leonard Leo, you get Neil Gorsuch.

This is why the current apparent depopulation of the White House staff is significant: Trump's capacity to execute is dependent on having the cadres to embrace his vision, such as it is, and carry it into effect. One reason the "Reagan revolution" deserves the name is that it swept into Washington a large and ideologically coherent cohort of conservative officials and bureaucratic professionals capable of leaving their stamp on every significant government program. To the extent that anything like this is happening under Trump, it's a bumper crop of grifters and douchebags with an ethno-nationalist streak -- and there are only enough of them to destroy existing programs, rather than to create enduring alternatives. This is the future of your Republican Party, ladies and gentlemen.

Except for this: shift your attention from the White House to the agencies and things look rather different (with the notable exception of the State Department under the singularly ineffective Tillerson). The left may mock and disparage, but the reaction from every conservative I've talked to has been consistent: Trump's cabinet is a conservative dream team, and they're moving quickly and confidently across a wide range of issues. Perhaps simply because Trump has neither a personal financial stake in nor any actual knowledge about most of what the agencies do, he's been content to leave things up to a crop of appointees who are mostly ideologues and mostly drones.

The current status of the Trump administration, then, might be described as an administrative inversion. The White House, ordinarily the center of policy direction, is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and dignity wraiths die like dogs. The real action is in the agencies. Trump, in this view of things, functions primarily as an electoral rocket car: destructive and uncontrollable, but at least capable of getting things moving. Some Republicans are sticking with Trump because of his style rather than in spite of it -- better a right-wing douchebag than a left-wing snowflake -- but even those driven by ideology still have something to like. Trump himself may be less than worthless in pushing the policies they care about, and his White House may be a badly-written daytime drama, but as long as he can sign bills and judicial commissions, he's better than any available alternative. 2

There are ways this alliance of convenience could fall apart, but they are less direct than, "Trump says something else utterly indefensible," or "The White House staff keep on murdering each other with pickaxes." These are daily occurrences now, and they are not really news when they happen. Anyone who is ever going to have an experience of total moral clarity about Donald Trump has already had theirs by now. One possibility is that high-profile failures of the conservative agenda in Congress undercut the hope that legislative (as opposed to merely administrative) success is possible under Trump. Another is that Trump's own appetite for drama and domination -- something that is both innate in his personality and strongly encouraged by his preferred media diet -- causes him to act out in ways that sabotage the political prospects of his supposed allies and the policies they care about. This is what it takes to get Congressional Republicans upset. Better to have the douchebag grifter inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in, they reasoned during the election, but now here he is in office, inside the tent and still pissing inside it. It's enough to make a drone ideologue go full snowflake.

The reason is that Trump's path to power as a Republican outsider effectively fenced out both Give Peace a Chance leftists and Carthago Delenda Est neoconservatives of the second Bush administration -- that is, anyone committed to significant and sustained departures from the status quo. Trump himself defines both ends of his administration's military Overton window: tough-talking swagger and fear of getting blamed if something big goes wrong. ↩︎

Mike Pence is technically unavailable, even though he's next in the line of succession. The only plausible way to remove Trump without party-destroying revenge would be a massive stroke -- or something else disabling his ability to yell and tweet. ↩︎

[sueboohscorner]

#iZombie S3 Episode 3 "Eat, Pray, Liv" Recap/Review with Spoilers

"Eat, Pray,Liv"

Zombie Dark Thirty

We join Major in an intense session of zombie army training.  What is it about a man in uniform? Looking good Major!

"Lunch time! Get 'em while their goopy!" -army dude

Major is not too thrilled with the processed brains given out at zombie training. He's gotten used to Liv's yummy brainy dishes. Back at the place he shares with his "best bud" Ravi he complains about the food to a still obviously depressed Ravi. The upside to the army brains is they are made of a formula that prevents visions which Major is happy about so he can focus on finding Natalie again. Can't he eat those teen girl brains every week though?

Meanwhile at a snazzy piano bar something extremely curious is taking place! Peyton is dressed to kill and Blaine is performing at the piano bar!

So, of course, the Bleyton shippers are excited! Blaine explains this is his new gig. I couldn't be happier-love to hear Blaine sing or, do anything really...

Blaine seeks legal advice from Peyton. Says he got a call from his dad's lawyer. Reminder: Blaine's dad was recently unfrozen unbeknownst to Blaine. She agrees to help with some very obvious flirtatious undertones. I am still TEAM RAVI!

Namaste

Which takes to the "death of the week," a yoga studio. Our latest meal for Liv is suddenly bludgeoned to death. Death by Buddha statue! That's just wrong!

Clive is on the scene and we learn the victim is Topher, a powerful mindfulness teacher. ROLLS EYES.

"Topher said he only had one enemy, the inability to accept the gift of change..."-Ladybird (Witness)

Clive explains the situation to Ravi and Liv as another cop on the scene finds a possible witness. A drunk homeless man who claims to have seen a subject flee the scene with a trash bag. Liv and Clive check out a dumpster in the alley where Clive decides to take a dive.

Clive scores! He finds a trash bad with a bloody shoe and then suggests Liv has Topher lunch and he takes a much needed shower!

Back at the lab Liv concocts some "special teas for her and Ravi..." She accidently gives him the one spike with brains and is grossed out by his penchant for almond milk! SHE is grossed out????

Poor Ravi. Just not his week!

Ravi ponders if Topher died with any regrets...he needs to take action with his Peyton problem STAT! Soon Ravi's old boss, Katty arrives at the lab. She is still trying to figure out the weird issues with the zombies bodies. She is quite curious which could definitely present a problem for the team. Just then Liv's guru brains kick in and she gets philosophical on us. Katty has definitely been doing her homework on mysterious death cases involving zombies. Just like the Supermax case she has found evidence of another woman found dead with human brains in her system. Plus, the condition of the body indicated she had died months before her actual death.

"So now Seattle is Ground Zero for this investigation!" -Katty

Meanwhile at Peyton's office...

Ravi pays a much overdue visit! Brrr...it's cold in there! He apologizes for his jealousy over Blaine but can't seem to help that it irks him to no end. He admits to replaying the sexual encounter over and over again in his head. Peyton gives him the what for.

"Your opinion in this matter is irrelevant!" -Peyton She's NOT wrong!

Back at Blaine's funeral home...

Blaine is awaiting Peyton's arrival for the meeting with his dad's lawyer.  He is still not sure why this meeting is happening due to his ongoing memory loss.

As Blaine makes small talk with his visitors, Peyton arrives to inform Blaine he is talking to his father. Blaine is shocked but agrees he is not entitled to money from the will considering his father is alive and happily signs the documents needed to avoid it.

"Once you get back on your feet we should uh...well, you tell me. What is it we used to do together?" -Blaine

Dad has no problem telling Blaine he was a crappy son! Peyton kicks them out and they gladly leave. But I doubt it's the last we will see of Blaine's father.

Back at the Police Station Liv is on Zen brains and is here to help. Mostly with philosophical observations. We find out Topher was mixed up in some shady business. so we could have a suspect.

Major is back at army training but isn't quite the star student yet. He makes a new friend, Justin who explains they are just a couple of rookies in the midst of former mercenaries and real army men who caught the zombie bug. Justin leaves with words of encouragement just as Major experiences a cough attack. He's not looking so hot,

But he marches on with his search for Natalie and visits Blaine for information. Major tells him what he did to Natalie and Blaine admits maybe his dad had a point! Major asks Blaine if he remembers what it felt like before Blaine took the cure when he was dying. He doesn't of course but says he's sure it wasn't good. Major is getting concerned. Blaine is able to help major with the Natalie search but he's worried he doesn't have long to find her.

Meanwhile, Blaine's Dad and his minion are looking to set up a business, Looks like a Zombie bar maybe? Humans allowed but only for the appetizers. They start dreaming creative ways to keep the establishment zombie's only.

Back at the lab...Ravi is giving Major a physical.

Major is deteriorating rapidly. He has weeks and then he will have to take the cure. Which means memory wipe, just like Blaine.

"Identity is just a hallucination of the unenlightened mind anyway!"-Liv

Ravi is not ready to give up on him. Remember he has been working on a serum to reverse memory loss and says it's ready. Well-hypothetically. it hasn't been tested on anyone but rats. Hmmm...who could they test it on? Blaine!!! But Blaine doesn't trust them.

If only there was someone he did trust. Let's think!

Liv gets a text from Clive about the murder suspect...so off to the police station.

The suspect seems way too cocky and clueless to be their man. Plus, if the shoe doesn't fit; you must acquit!  But he does offer up his theory on who might have done it and this time-the shoe fits! But this guy isn't quite right either, he states his shoes were stolen when he came home one night and felt the "energy" in his place was all wrong.  Plus look at him...he just doesn't seem murdery to me!

Meanwhile at the lab, Ravi is frustrated in his quest to save Major from experiencing the side effects from the cure.

Suddenly, Katty appears with more information about her victim with the brains in her digestive tract. She tells Ravi the girl was at the infamous boat party the day before she died. Whoa!

Ravi plays dumb but she doesn't notice and invites him to dinner.

Liv and Clive are on a stake out. As they argue about methods, a uniform drives up and tells him someone complained about a pimp yelling at a hooker in a car outside her house. Meaning Clive and Liv! Clive notices a curtain close above so they pay the nosy neighbor a visit. They are trying to find the original homeless man who was the witness to the tail-end of the crime. The lady explains she has seen the homeless man running down the alley and throwing a garbage bag in the dumpster. Witness now becomes main suspect.

I just noticed Liv hasn't had one vision during this entire episode. Wonder what's up with that?

Back at zombie army training...Major has finally become the badass trainee we all knew he could be and gets a pat on the back from his commander.

Later Liv shows up at Major's house to some jams being blasted. When she enters she finds Major and his new army pal playing Dance Dance Revolution!

Liv joins the party and as Major is making brainy appetizers, he has a cough attack. He longingly looks at Liv as she dances with Justin. He knows his death is imminent if he doesn't take the cure but the thought of not remembering his love for Liv is truly heartbreaking.

Back at the station, turns out creepy Mitch from earlier actually posed as the homeless man to murder Topher. A little confused on how we got there...but I'll roll with it. Something about money and a letter from Prison but I am pretty bored with this murder investigation so luckily the beautiful Peyton arrives to give me a much needed distraction!

Back at the lab Major, Ravi and Blaine are discussing Blaine's new career as a lounge singer as Peyton and Liv show up. THE GANG'S ALL HERE!

Ravi explains about the serum that can possibly eradicate the memory loss.

Ravi gives his best sales pitch to the skeptical Blaine.

Peyton: Could it kill him?

Ravi: It probably won't.

Peyton: But it could...

Problem is, Blaine doesn't WANT to remember the person he is. But Ravi makes a fair argument that he basically owes them this It's a chance to atone!

Ravi begins to scream and Peyton asks a simple question. Why are you being such a dick?

"Isn't obvious? It's because I'm in love with you!" -Ravi

Apparently, the love confession or all the passion in the room moves Blaine and he agrees to be the guinea pig. Blaine! I just love you!

We return to a much spruced up version of Blaine's dad's new zombie club complete with a new moniker.

ooI'm going to take a wild guess and assume this place will become very important in the new future. I am still worrying what's going to happen to Blaine if he gets his memory back! Blaine's dad should be worried about that too.

Back at Ravi's, Peyton pays an intense visit. She can't understand that if he loves her why has he been so bloody awful to her. I don't get it either Peyton. MEN!

"Don't you get it? The one thing that is stopping us from happening is YOU!" -Peyton to Ravi

YES! But then.... Peyton here's a noise....

EPISODE RATING 8

I thought it was good but the murder story was fairly boring for me. I am enjoying the Blaine Ravi rivalry and want to see more of that!

[rosabrachetto-promo]

Amaretto

-

Epilogue

December 5, 1933

As Feliciano headed out to the apartments, he noticed his former master’s place was dark, not a single bit of light inside. In fact, his master had not been outside of his place in months. Ever since the two of them split, he hadn’t heard a word from him. He master may have been abusive, but he never meant to be hurtful. He had nothing but the best intentions, but could only execute them through force and violence. He always feared his master would return to his violent, merciless nature if he left. But, if something still happened despite his recent quietness, Feliciano could only fear the worse.

He went up to the door and knocked. “Mr. Kirkland?” he called.

No answer.

“Arthur?”

No answer.

“Gin?”

No answer.

“Master?”

No answer.

His stomach began turning at the lack of response. He looked under the doormat to find a spare key underneath. He unlocked the door and entered cautiously. “Master?” he called again. “Master, it’s me, Amaretto.” He looked around in the kitchen and living room to find no sign of Arthur anywhere. “I just wanted to check on you. Nobody has seen or heard from you in months. We’re all worried.”

He then checked the guest room and bathroom. Nothing. He checked his master’s bedroom and bathroom. Nothing. There was only only room left to check; the office.

As he made his way to the office, he could feel his heart beating faster and louder than normal. There was so much for him to be worried about. Did something happen to his master? Did someone kidnap him? Murder him? Did he run away? Did he kill himself? So many dreadful thoughts ran through his mind, and he couldn’t help but blame himself for all of this.

Feliciano opened the door to the office slowly and peeked inside. There, he finally found Arthur, lying across his desk, messy hair, and a bottle of beer in his hand. He approached him slowly, careful as he possibly could. “Master?” he asked quietly, stepping around the desk. He noticed the other hand hanging off to the side, holding a gun with a finger on the trigger. Yet, there was no blood anywhere in the room. As he got closer, he noticed his master’s face was unshaven and unkempt.

He reached out and tapped his shoulder lightly. “Master-“

Suddenly, Gin bolted awake, startling Feliciano and causing him to fall back as his former Master pulled out his gun and aimed it at him. The Italian sat on the ground in shock and fear as the Brit’s arm shock violently with the gun in his hand. Gin’s expression was fierce, a death glare in his eyes as he growled like a guard dog. But then, his eyes started to soften, causing him gasp as he lowered his gun.

“Feliciano?” he asked softly.

“Master.” Feliciano stood back up and hugged him tightly. “I was so worried.” he said, sobbing quietly into his former master’s chest. He could feel Arthur’s arm wrap around him gently, and could hear him place the gun back on the desk before he stroked his hair.

“I’m so sorry to scare you like that, love.” he began, his voice calm, gentle, and sincere. “I didn’t think you would come back after all this time.”

“I just wanted to check in on you, Master-“

“Shh, it’s Arthur now, sweetheart. I’m not your master anymore, remember.”

“No one has heard from you in months. I was so worried. I thought something happened to you because of me.”

“Why would think something like that, my dear?”

“It all started when we split up. I thought I caused you to disappear from everyone else.”

“It wasn’t your fault, deary. You did nothing wrong.” He took his hand and kissed it softly. “Come, why don’t we get some coffee? You’re not to busy are you?”

“No, not at all. Thank you, Mas-Arthur.”

~~~~~~

They sat inside the cafe, quietly sipping their drinks as Arthur read the paper. “So, they finally lifted the ban on alcohol?” he asked. “Guess that old saloon won’t need me anymore.”

“Y-you can still sell prostitutes, a-and your other rings-“

“Feliciano, my love. I need to talk to you.” He took the boy’s hands in his, brushing the thumb over his fingers gently. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since you left. And frankly, I can’t go on the way I have been. My empire has slowly been falling apart ever since you left. It’s been a bitch getting more clientele for the whores. Not to mention everything the fact that one right after another, they’ve started to leave. I can’t keep this up any longer, love. It’s time I let my empire fall and move on.”

“It doesn’t have to end, Master. Leave it to me. Remember, I’m your prince. I get the empire if you-“

“It doesn’t work like that, love. Even if I did give the empire to you, how would you bring back the clients? They were only two reasons my empire lasted as long as it did; the liquor, and you.”

“Me?”

“Every single one of my clients wanted you, Feliciano. They couldn’t get enough of you. You were the only one that made them feel special, that made them feel wanted, that made them feel loved. You gave them so much hope for the future. That’s why you were so popular as Amaretto. It was never about your looks, or the fact that you were willing to sleep with both sexes, or even the sexual pleasure. It was about you heart, Feliciano. You had genuine love in your heart to give, and they felt it. So when you left, the only way I could get to clients to stay was the booze. But now that the feds legalized it again, those clients won’t need me anymore. Nobody will need me anymore.”

“But I-“

“Without liquor, how are you going to keep this empire alive? You’ll just be a whore without a pimp. No one to protect you from harm. I’ll be too broken and that kraut of yours wouldn’t even dream of getting involved in crime. This is why the empire must fall, Feliciano. There is nothing that can be done to save it.”

“I’m...I’m so sorry, Master.”

“Arthur, sweetheart. I’m not your master anymore.”

“S-sorry.”

They each took a sip from their drinks, then Arthur returned the paper to the side. The Brit then smiled and let out a soft chuckle. “You are such a sweetheart, dear." he continued. "Still checking in on the man that destroyed you, just to see if he was doing ok. Ludwig is so lucky to have you.”

“You know, Arthur, I realized something during these past few months. If I never became your whore, I probably wouldn’t have met Ludwig. We first met when I was out selling myself, so I guess I should thank you for that.”

“You really think so?”

“Se. I do.”

Arthur looked out at the window and took another sip of his tea. Amaretto looked out well, watching as the snow began to fall and the city was being decorated for Christmas.

“So, if you’re going to leave your empire, what do you think you’d want to do?” Feliciano asked, sipping his coffee.

“Well, that old saloon could still use some fixing up to do.” Arthur pondered. “Even if I abandon it, the least I could do if have it rebuilt. Afterall, Gil, Francis, and Toni where the main reason I was able to sustain the empire, I suppose they could use a real bar with proper storage and working equipment. I suppose I could buy out those apartments and have them refurbished as well. It was just and abandoned building anyway; I can talk to city hall about buying it out and making it new again. Of course, everyone living there will need a temporary place to stay in the meantime.”

“You’d really do all of that, for us?”

“Do you know why I took all of you in in the first place? Because we are all foreigners, we’re at a huge disadvantage in such troubling financial times. When I came here, I was always at a lost because of where I was born. As was everyone else. I just wanted to prevent everyone else from suffering the same prejudices I faced when I came to America. And despite everything that has been happening lately, I still want to help all those coming here seeking their American Dreams. I still have a fuck ton of money left in my savings; might as well put it to good use.”

Feliciano could feel his heart fill up with joy hearing everything his master said. All he ever wanted for his Master was to see the kind, loving, and caring side of him come out. And come out it did. He always believed his master was good deep down, even when everyone else saw him as pure evil. A tear began to shed down his cheek, despite his best efforts to hold back.

“Is something wrong, sweetheart?” Arthur asked him.

“I’m just so happy for you, Arthur.” he sobbed. “All I ever wanted from you was your kindness, and you’re finally letting it show. Please, stay like this, Arthur. Be this kind and loving forever.”

Arthur smiled and wiped away the tear from his former lover’s cheek. “Anything for you, my sweet prince.”

~~~~~~

December 24, 1933

As plans for the bar and the apartments to be rebuilt went underway, Arthur did manage to find a temporary shelter for his former workers, which included a hall for gatherings and events. It was there that everyone was gathered for a holiday celebration. And inside the hall stood a beautiful Christmas tree, decked with bright lights and elegant ornaments, and several gifts underneath.

As the festivities went underway, Feliciano approached Arthur, who was standing by the window gazing out at the snow falling outside.

“Snow is so pretty, isn’t it?” he said standing across. “It looks so soft, and the children love playing in it.”

Arthur turned to him, giving him a soft grin. “Still in love with the snow, I see?” he teased. “Just like when we first dated. You kept wanting go out and play in it like a kid.”

“We never had snow in Italy, at least not where I lived. But it gave me so much hope and joy the first time I saw it.” He handed the other man a cup of cider as they turned their attention inside, finding Timo sitting by the tree dressed as Santa, and several children running and playing inside. “It was nice of you to invite the orphans over as well, Arthur. Miss Iryna will be so happy to see their faces full of joy this Christmas.”

He then noticed Ludwig standing outside the entrance signaling him to come over. He took Arthur’s hand and began to make his way over there.

“Where are you taking me, boy?” Arthur asked, hesitant to leave his place.

“You’ll see.” Feliciano said with a bubbly smile. “Do you still have your pocket watch?”

“Of course, never leave without it. But what does that have to do anything?”

“Trust me.”

They met up with Ludwig, standing at the side of the entrance.

“Is she here?”

“Of course.” He turned to the side and reached out behind the wall. “Frau Kirkland, he’s here.” Stepping out from the behind the wall was an elderly woman with wavy grey hair. Her hat was a deep brown with a red feather, and her fur coat was gold, like a lion’s mane. Most notably, was her thick eyebrows and a brooch shaped in the letter "K."

The woman gasped softly as she faced Arthur. “Is that really you?” she asked him, her voice carrying a obvious British accent.

“Uh,” Arthur replied, still confused to what was happening.

“Do you have a pocket watch, my boy?” she asked.

“Yes, Ma’am-“

“Do show it to me, please?”

He took out watch and showed it to the woman, who turned it over to the back. Her jaw dropped as she noticed the “Kirkland” engraving, causing her to sob. “It’s been so long.” she cried. “I’ve missed you so much, my son.”

“S-son?”

“Oh, yes, that’s right. You were just a baby when you went to the orphanage. You never got to know me well. I’m so sorry I had to leave you there. I was going through such a terrible time in my life, and I didn’t want you to suffer through all of it.”

“Y-you l-left me-?”

“I left that pocket watch with you, hoping you’d keep it with you as a way to find each other in the future. And now here we are. I finally get to see my son after all these years.”

Only then did Arthur realize who the woman was, causing his own eyes to water up as well.

“M-mummy?”

Ludwig and Feliciano watched as the mother and son hugged each other and cry happily. The auburn-haired man then held his lover’s arm tightly and leaned his head into his bicep. “It’s so beautiful.” he sighed. “He’s reunited with his mother.”

“Now he has someone in his life to love him again, and he can heal and move on from all his heartache.” Ludwig added.

As the Brit led his mother inside, to meet everyone, The German and Italian made their way to the window, watching the snow fall onto the city pavement, creating a miraculous winter display.

“I hope next year is full of wonderful surprises and joy all throughout.” Feliciano said.

“And I hope you find your American Dream.” Ludwig added.

Feliciano chuckled lightly, then pecked Ludwig’s cheek and smiled brightly.

“What’s so funny?” Ludwig asked.

“I already found my dream.” he answered.

“You did?”

“Ludwig, you were my American Dream all along. And I cannot thank you enough.” His leaned in and kissed his lips gently. “Thank you so much, Ludwig. Grazii mille.”

“De nenti, Feliciano.”

They shared another kiss, then exchanged small, gentle smiles to each other. “Hey Luddy,” the Italian asked. “How do people say ‘Merry Christmas’ in Germany?”

“Fröhliche Weihnachten. How do they say it back in Italy?”

“Bon Natali.”

“Bon Natali, Feliciano.”

“Fröhliche Weihnachten, Ludwig.”

They began to kiss again, holding each other closely as the snow continued to fall onto the New York streets. Feliciano may had been through hell ever since he first landed on Ellis Island. But now, he finally had what he came to the have in the New World. He found his dream, his American Dream. And he couldn’t be happier.

[96thdayofrage]

Media tycoon and former Labour MP Robert Maxwell (father of Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s partner in crime) was given a state funeral in Jerusalem after *accidentally* falling off his yacht – the unluckily named “Lady Ghislaine”. Later it was revealed Maxwell Sr was a Mossad asset who used his vast network of connections and publishing platforms to run editorial interference over his purchased assets to influence enemies and friends alike, ensuring their fealty to the foreign government that had enlisted him for its espionage work.

His tabloid empire was the piss-colored propaganda organ of the interests he served, overseeing its rapid growth and tentacled reach across the globe. More ominously, he was behind the spy agency’s successful attempt to install a trapdoor in software intended for government use, allowing the Israelis a direct pipeline into a vast network of computers installed with undectable malware.

At the time of his death, the disgraced magnate was under investigation for raiding his companies’ pension funds to cover the losses incurred from his multiple and reckless takeovers, and finance a luxury lifestyle he enjoyed sharing with high profile pals like Henry Kissinger and Barbara Walters. Curiously, many of these fossilized specimens from Robert Maxwell’s roster of friends from the Reagan era would circle around Epstein, most notably Donald Trump whose Mar-a-Lago resort would later become a recruiting center for employer Epstein’s underage “massage therapists”.

Fast forward a couple of decades since the days a casino mogul was gobbling down canapés with the old guard denizens of the ‘swamp’. Notice a similar, if not identical MO in both Maxwell and Epstein’s role in procuring technology for the Israelis, who in turn sold it with undisclosed add-ons, providing an open window into its users’ databases.

Like his predecessor, Epstein had a financial stake in a startup (headed by former Israeli Defense Minister and later Prime Minister Ehud Barak) connected to Israel’s defense industry that provides infrastructure for emergency services as a call handling platform. Considering the company’s connection to military intelligence, it wouldn’t be a stretch to speculate on some of this software’s other ‘special’ features. A variation of the early technology that Maxwell was able to procure for his Israeli bosses was later sold to the Saudis, who leveraged its sophisticated tracking features to assassinate Jamal Khashoggi.

Epstein, like Maxwell, was laying the groundwork for Israeli espionage activities through his interests in companies with a political agenda concealed in products intended for international export. If true, the playboy philanthropist feted and flattered his high profile friends to ensnare them as complicit partners in what amounts to the legal definition of treason. Epstein’s covert activities have undiminished real world consequences for anyone on Israel’s international radar, especially those challenging the status quo policies in place that prioritize “The Jewish State’s” political and financial objectives over actual justice and global stability.

If you have ever asked yourself why Israel’s war crimes and settlement expansion go unchallenged by US lawmakers, consider the career destroying consequences contained within those dossiers compiled by the braintrust behind Epstein’s ’suicide’. “We’ll trade you one US Embassy in Jerusalem for 10 minutes of hidden camera footage of you . . . let’s say ‘enjoying’ a rolled up Forbes magazine”.

Were the surveillance apparatuses installed throughout Epstein’s properties merely a voyeur’s tools, or did he use them to leverage the moral failings of his former friends for purposes that might have risked exposure of more than the nether regions of wealthy pedo-punters? Considering his connections to Israeli defense industries and his own Achilles penis that required, by his own admission, “three orgasms a day”, the answer points to an unslakable addiction that dovetailed conveniently with his state-sponsored sex crimes.

Did Epstein make the same mistake of Maxwell (who had asked for nearly half a billion dollar in “loans” from his Israeli backers to relieve him of his mounting debts) believing the dirt he had in his possession would prove radioactive if released? By this time, the corpulent tycoon was nicknamed the ‘Bouncing Czech’ a reference in most part to his worsening money woes. The implication of this request, if turned down, was the exposure of Israel’s state secrets. Epstein could have also attempted to collateralize the cache of damning evidence still in his possession to secure his his freedom with the same fatal consequences.

Both Maxwell and Epstein somehow evaded the electronics that linked them to the outside world at the time of their deaths, even though the latter had reportedly made an attempt on his own life while in custody. Both men, facing ruination and serious prison time gave their executioners an alibi: They had nothing to left to live for. The establishment media is already trotting out ancient, ding-a-ling conspiracy theories from obscure right wing sources (attributed to Russia, of course) to highlight the absurdity and futility of questioning the official story of Epstein’s death. Verdict: Nothing to see here.

By now, it’s a given that the parasitic and preferred daughter of the deceased tycoon, made the fateful introduction between her new boyfriend and the Israeli operatives seeking an entry level plutocrat to carry out their blackmail operations after the untimely death of his predecessor. An impoverished socialite has to survive in pricey Manhattan somehow, and that somehow was re-establishing the shady connections to the espionage underworld that had recruited Maxwell Sr.

Ghislaine’s later role as Epstein’s Chief Procurement Officer (or pimp for short) gives more credence to the rumors that she is more than just a debased, barnacle-like appendage to a billionaire, desperate to please her platonic partner by “organizing his social life”, but a fully cognizant co-conspirator in an operation aimed at strengthening Israel’s hand in all matters pertaining to its national security interests, or more accurately, its overseas criminal enterprises.

The recent raid on Epstein’s Manhattan apartment was not the result of a so-called Justice Department righting the egregious wrong it committed by letting Epstein off with a slap on the wrist after his initial conviction that allowed him to serve his sentence largely outside the minimum-security facility with an open door policy for its billionaire guest. More likely, the reversal of Epstein’s “sweetheart” deal was a joint operation between the oligarch cabal informally known as the Mega-Group, and the state security apparatuses that do their bidding.

It’s seems likely that this sudden pivot towards justice from a Justice Department initially spooked into inaction by the spook in his custody, was motivated by the need to remove the most damning bits among Epstein’s vast trove of physical evidence against the pervy punters who visited his island getaway for unintended photo ops with underage girls.

Perhaps his own abuse of these minors was a perk he felt entitled to, and one that would be overlooked in the service of “national security”. It’s hard for most people to differentiate between the government he actually worked for and the ruling establishment on his home turf.

It’s possible that Epstein felt his serial transgressions were merely par for the plutocracy and justified in the service of a higher calling.

The ‘Israel First’ philanthropist shared an unyielding ideological justification for his own criminality as Robert Maxwell, whom the British Home Office had considered recruiting for its own intelligence gathering in the mid 1960’s. Having determined that the well-connected, multilingual, rising star politician was strictly “Zionist”, the spy agency withdrew his candidacy.

Epstein’s real crimes had little to do with raping children, despite the overturned plea deal that came about when a federal judge ruled that prosecutors had violated the victims rights by by concealing the agreement from them. The one time teflon-coated “member of intelligence” who was “above the pay grade” of a powerful District Attorney (now a now scandal-tainted former Labor Secretary) was ultimately (and lethally) penalized for not destroying the contents of his secret-laden safes, leaving his handlers still vulnerable to their explosive contents.

Had the doomed financier divested himself of the toxic assets still in his possession, he might still be roaming the earth today, scouring it for new specimens to populate his underage petting zoo. As a result of the Justice Department’s decision to reverse the non-prosecution deal meant to bury the most incendiary facts of the case, lower-rung punters like former governor Bill Richardson and Senator George Mitchell are being publicly named for their part in the sordid scandal. Someone has to take the fall. (Rule number one of PR crisis management: Crucify the insignificant and let them hang out to dry until the public tires of watching the slow motion spectacle of their undoing.) Meanwhile, documented and/or photographic evidence against more powerful players like Bill Clinton and Donald Trump will have already been destroyed in the pursuit of selective justice.

The fallout of Epstein’s spectacular downfall predictably miss the mark as scandals involving the rich and powerful tend to do. Much of the controversy will dissolve into a Cheetoh dust maelstrom of disinformation, disseminated on Reddit and 4Chan by incel info-warriors before shooting up a shopping mall or playground.

Subsequent reporting of the case will overlook decades of the elite-driven state craft that elevated corrupt and ruthless entities like Epstein and Trump, both ring-kissing acolytes in their youth of influential mob fixer/politcal power broker Roy Cohn – himself a serial sexual predator who similarly caught the fancy of fellow deviants Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover. Follow the money trail from Tel Aviv and you’ll discover an ancestral link between the corpse of Epstein and his ghostly godfathers waiting with his rewards in hell.

Along with the other disgraced and expendable patsies left in the wake of this ongoing scandal is Alan Dershowitz, Epstein’s octogenarian chief legal counsel and ‘wing man’ aboard the Lolita Express. The now unemployable cable news pundit will live out the remainder of his pointless life under a cloud of suspicion. Despite all the damning testimony against him, the statutory rape allegations never quite stick, but follow him around like a sneaky fart, forcing a distance between himself and the rest of humanity that will last until he is engulfed by the sulfurous fumes of his own making.

The former Harvard law professor’s lifelong service to Israel will go unrewarded – not as a result of victim testimony placing him at multiple crime scenes, but in consideration of his own inept self-defense strategy: ”I’m a scurvy rat aboard a sinking ship eating its own tail to stay alive. Pity me”! Dershowitz at this point will be lucky if he can achieve the same pay grade and social status of Lindsay Lohan. Ditto for Prince Andrew who can at least be relied on to expire slowly of gout in his time-out corner at Windsor Castle.

The moral of this story could be “Lie down with dogs and never wake up agan with a prison-issued sheet around your neck”. A variation of the old “Lie down with dogs and and wake up as fish food”.

[investmart007]

LAS VEGAS | Nevada investigating legal pimp, candidate for sex assault

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/5UrDOA

LAS VEGAS | Nevada investigating legal pimp, candidate for sex assault

LAS VEGAS— Nevada authorities confirmed Wednesday that they’re investigating allegations of sexual assault against a legal pimp and state legislative candidate.

The Nevada Department of Public Safety said it was investigating Dennis Hof because of a request from the sheriff’s office in northern Nevada’s Carson City, where Hof owns several legal brothels.

DPS spokeswoman Kim Smith declined to provide additional details, and the Carson City sheriff’s office referred all questions to DPS. Hof, who is running as a Republican this year for a state Assembly seat, said in a statement Wednesday that he is cooperating with the investigation but denies any wrongdoing.

Hof has been accused on at least three occasions of sexual assault. But it’s unclear if the state probe is related to those allegations.

“While he has his suspicions, at this time Mr. Hof does not know exactly what the allegations are, who made them or when the alleged incident supposedly took place,” Hof’s campaign said in a statement. “Nevertheless, he completely and totally denies that any such incident occurred and believes the allegations are groundless and politically motivated.”

Hof, who is seeking a seat from a southern district near the city of Pahrump, has fashioned himself as a Donald Trump-style candidate. He wrote a book called “The Art of the Pimp,” akin to Trump’s 1987 book “The Art of the Deal,” and has called himself “The Trump of Pahrump.'”

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has reported that three former prostitutes accused Hof of sexual assault in 2005, 2009 and 2011 at his Bunny Ranch brothel near Carson City and Love Ranch brothel outside Las Vegas.

Prosecutors declined to file charges over the allegations, citing the expired statute of limitations.

Hof denies the allegations. He told The Associated Press earlier this year the women’s claims are “totally absurd” and that they became embittered against him because they weren’t as successful in the sex industry.

The state Department of Public Safety investigation was first reported by The Nevada Independent Tuesday night.

Hof, who starred in the HBO adult reality series “Cathouse,” upended local politics this summer when he ousted an incumbent state lawmaker in a GOP primary.

He has also tangled with county regulators, who have twice shuttered one of his southern Nevada brothels, contending that he failed to renew his licenses or get proper permits for renovations.

The brothel owner has said the regulatory problems at the brothel outside Las Vegas where NBA player Lamar Odom was found unconscious in 2015 are also politically motivated. He has taken the county and county officials to court.

The issues have cropped up amid an anti-brothel push by a coalition of religious groups and anti-sex trafficking activists. Voters in Lyon County, where Hof has several brothels, will consider in November whether to ban the legal bordellos. A similar effort failed in Nye County.

Brothels, which are illegal in the counties that contain Las Vegas and Reno, harken back to Nevada’s days as a mining territory about 150 years ago. Brothels were illegal but tolerated in some areas until 1971, when the Mustang Ranch near Reno became the first legal brothel. It led to a movement that allowed counties with populations of 700,000 people or fewer to decide whether to legalize prostitution in licensed facilities. Outside of bordellos, prostitution is illegal.

About 20 brothels operate in Nevada, mostly in rural areas. The state doesn’t publicize how many are open, and most owners keep a much lower profile than Hof.

By  Associated Press ___

[democratsunited-blog]

Conservative Confusion About Who and What We’re FightingThe American Spectator

https://uniteddemocrats.net/?p=7696

Conservative Confusion About Who and What We’re FightingThe American Spectator

At this moment, Ohio Democrats and their Beltway masters are diligently working to steal the state’s 12th Congressional District from Republican Troy Balderson. Balderson’s Democratic opponent, Danny O’Connor, refused to concede after narrowly losing the special election and a few hours later — the county where he works — miraculously “discovered” 588 uncounted votes in a “routine audit.” When they were counted, Balderson’s lead shrank by 190. Similar skullduggery will accompany the count of provisional and absentee ballots, which will inevitably lead to an automatic recount, which will ultimately lead to an O’Connor “victory.”

What does this have to do with conservative confusion?

It’s a timely reminder that the Democratic Party is little more than a criminal conspiracy and that any conservative who sits at home during the midterms, griping about “GOPes,” will be complicit in the destruction of the republic. If this sounds over the top, think about who will take over the leadership of crucial committees if the Democrats flip enough seats to regain a majority in the House: Adam Schiff will probably become the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee — Adam Schiff! Before we go any further, think about that. This buffoon is still braying about Russian collusion even as he covers up the crimes of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Schiff’s first order of business as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee will be to halt any ongoing investigations into Obama administration abuses of power — particularly the illegal deployment of the FBI, CIA, and IRS against domestic political opponents of the Democratic Party, including the Trump presidential campaign. Schiff will likewise close down all inquiries into Mrs. Clinton’s copious catalogue of crimes. Having thus enabled Obama administration officials to escape justice, Schiff will then pivot to his primary goal — destroying the Trump Presidency. Just three months ago, he wrote the following in the New York Times:

[I]f President Trump participated in a conspiracy to defraud the United States during the campaign by colluding with the Russians, there is a historical basis for the Senate to remove him from office. It is even more clear that if he committed the offense of obstruction of justice while in office, that would provide a legal basis for removal.… During the course of our investigation in the House Intelligence Committee, we have found troubling evidence of both collusion and obstruction of justice.

Schiff will turn the Intelligence Committee into a Trump-seeking missile, and he’ll have lots of help from other committees. Maxine Waters, who calls for the President’s impeachment at every opportunity, is the ranking Democrat on the House Banking Committee. Other top Democrats on House committees who supported last January’s impeachment motion include Tim Walz (Veterans Affairs), Raúl Grijalva (Natural Resources), Bennie Thompson (Homeland Security), Frank Pallone (Energy & Commerce), Eliot Engel (Foreign Affairs), Jim McGovern (Rules), and Nydia Velázquez (Small Business). And this doesn’t include subcommittees.

This will not require a Democratic landslide. All it will take is a few thousand cranky conservatives in each of 23 pivotal congressional districts who can’t figure out who the bad guys are, who think the enemy is Speaker of the House Paul Ryan or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. There are, of course, legitimate reasons to be disappointed with the GOP leadership. They didn’t work hard enough to rid us of Obamacare, and their fiscal incontinence has not exactly been a feather in their cap. But allowing the Democrats to capture a majority would be a disaster for the nation. As former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr writes at Fox News:

Even if the midterm elections do not result in the “blue wave” for which Democrats pine, a bare majority of one Democratic House member will cost the GOP every committee chairmanship, the speakership, and control of the legislative agenda.… Up to now, the question of impeachment has resided on the ideological and financial fringes of the Democratic Party.… All that will change on Nov. 7 if the previous day’s voting confirms a House and possibly a Senate majority win for the Democrats.

It doesn’t matter that the impeachment of the President, for mythical crimes committed in Adam Schiff’s tawdry little mind, wouldn’t result in a Senate conviction. Fighting it would involve so much White House time that virtually nothing else would get done. And this is the Democratic goal. President Trump, to the surprise of yours truly, has been a very effective president: On his watch, unemployment has dropped to 3.8 percent, economic growth is twice what it was under Obama, taxes have been cut for 8 in 10 Americans, Obamacare’s justly reviled individual mandate has been effectively repealed, the VA has been overhauled, ad infinitum.

The Democrats need to stop this, or they will go the way of the Whig Party. But they can’t pull it off by running empty-headed candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who thinks arithmetic is a conservative talking point. They can’t win a majority in either house of Congress by calling for open borders or pimping Medicare-for-All. They plan to regain their lost majorities by vote fraud — as they are demonstrating in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District right now — lying to the voters through their toad eaters in the legacy media, and demoralizing conservatives to the extent that they sit home on November 6, allowing hard-won GOP majorities to collapse.

OH-12 shouldn’t have been close enough for the Democrats to steal. The razor-thin majority by which Balderson won is the result of absent suburban voters who have forgotten that, after 2006, the Democrats nearly destroyed the U.S. economy and set the stage for the Obama era with all its trademark criminality. The Democrats are crooks and liars. Even worse, they are incompetent. If they are allowed to get their tentacles on the levers of power again, they will ruin everything they touch, and it will probably require more than mere votes to get rid of them next time. Conservatives can save the republic from all this by showing up for the midterms.

Rep. Adam Schiff (YouTube screenshot)

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